Overview
PA Promotions was founded in 1996 by Phil Armes after he suffered a life changing crash in an International motorcycle race that left him paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.
The original focus of the company was Sports Marketing – providing sponsorship and PR services to rights holders, sponsors, and sponsor seekers; primarily in the motorcycle sport sector. Catering for a full range of clients from individual competitors and race teams, through to commercial management of events from grass roots to Grand Prix.
The philosophy of providing clients with a first class service has been met with the continual development of skills and services to a point where in addition to the original core focus a wide range of creative marketing solutions, across an increasing number of sport sectors, can be offered.
In recent years Phil has become an accomplished presenter hosting a live sport show on radio, presenting studio based and on location features and reports for television broadcast, giving motivational talks, and a hugely successful one man show to live audiences.
Phil Armes
After a motorcycle racing accident at the Ulster Grand Prix in 1995 left him paralysed and confined to a wheelchair Phil has been self employed, working in the Sports Marketing and Sports Broadcasting sectors.
Although he has never completely lost the ‘need for speed’, or the desire to take on new challenges. So in 2016 he returned to Northern Ireland to ride a (modified) two wheel motorcycle to complete a lap of the track where he crashed and sustained his life changing injuries; and then for good measure took on the Isle of Man TT course, to become the first (and only) paraplegic to ride the world’s toughest road race circuit.
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BBC TV film Phil's preparations for his historic TT lap -
Phil interviews multiple British Superbike Champion, Shane Byrne -
Phil on his historic Isle of Man lap
His initial employment after six months in hospital undergoing treatment and rehabilitation was as Project Manager to set up and operate a motorcycle project for disadvantaged and disenfranchised young people from the Earlham Estate in Norwich.
PA Promotions quickly established itself as a lead UK agency in motorcycle sport providing services for the ACU (UK Governing Body of Motorcycle Sport) for the British Motocross Championship, the FIM (World Governing Body of Motorcycle Sport) British Motocross Grand Prix, and the Weston Beach Race – the largest off road motorcycle event in the UK; and both Kawasaki and Honda factory teams in the British Superbike Championship.
Over the subsequent years Phil also worked as a lead figure in the setting up and running of an International kart race event in Portugal solely for people with disabilities – (on the proviso he could compete in the event as well!). And subsequently went on to help develop hand controls for karts that would enable people with disabilities to race against non-disabled drivers on equal terms.
But to be brutally honest, Phil’s main strengths have always been sport and talking! So it was inevitable he would be drawn towards broadcast media and he has gained a wealth of experience in recent years hosting and presenting both live and pre-recorded shows with Norwich based Future Radio and Mustard TV.
And taking the ‘talking’ asset of his skill set to a new level, Phil has enjoyed great success as a motivational speaker; provides lectures to Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists as part of their degree courses at the University of East Anglia; prepared and presented the 25th anniversary dinner show for the Weston Beach Race; and has prepared, promoted, and presented an ‘Evening With Phil Armes’ - a full two hour one man show to a packed house at Norwich Playhouse.