National Motorsport Week goes live

The inaugural National Motorsport Week goes live this Saturday (August 12), yet has already been hailed a great success by its founders, the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), and its partners in the nationwide initiative, the Motor Sports Association (MSA).

The idea behind the week is for the sport to help itself by opening its doors to new drivers, marshals, spectators etc as, for it to flourish and thereby create more work for Britain’s motorsport industry, it must attract new blood.

Teams, organisers, circuits, promoters, clubs and individual participants have all been encouraged to contribute in any way they can and the response has been phenomenal. For its part, the MSA has briefed over 700 of its affiliated clubs and supplied them with information packs in order to optimise support throughout the country.

A dedicated website has been created – nationalmotorsportweek.co.uk - on which details of 50-plus of the many related events can be found. Courtesy of MIA member Lateral Syncing, fans can also use it to download (free of charge) the official calendar for the week – the company’s innovative technology ‘Screenza™’ will then automatically update recipient’s desktop wallpaper and screensaver with images from the events as they take place. In addition, fans can submit their own photographs

of the events to be featured on Screenza, or add an event to the interactive calendar.

The events concerned include the Grand Prix Masters of Great Britain at Silverstone (August 12/13), featuring British former World Champion Nigel Mansell. The related ‘MIA Masters of Golf’ Pro-Am tournament takes place at Whittlebury Park tomorrow (August 10). It will feature such international motorsport heroes as Mansell (a first class golfer and golf course owner), Derek Warwick, Ricardo Patrese, Jan Lammers, Pierluigi Martini and Eric van de Poele. The tournament will effectively ‘tee off’ National Motorsport Week.

Said the MIA’s Chris Aylett, “We are thrilled at the way the motorsport community has taken National Motorsport Week to heart and there is no doubt the sport, and therefore the industry that underpins it, will benefit enormously. Everyone is a winner in this – thousands of people will get to sample our wonderful sport for the first time, the net effect of which will help to keep our world-leading industry in its rightful place.”