Day two of Autosport International 2015 saw the last day of the Autosport Engineering show and the last of the trade only days.
Over 700 companies from all over the world have been exhibiting over the two days so far. Although the stands in the main show and adjoining performance car show remain, the Engineering exhibition is now replaced by the Short oval and grass track show, showcasing one of the cheaper ends of motorsport which usually isn’t as well reported by the mainstream motorsport media.
Guest’s on the Autosport stage today included M-Sport (GT and WRC) boss Malcolm Wilson, Williams F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds, BRDC chairman Derek Warwick and Sky F1 commentator David Croft.
Croft spoke about the new F1 Super licence rules and how it should prevent ever younger drivers from progessing to F1 quite so early. “Having 17 year olds going into F1 is making 20 year olds feel like they have to retire and that doesn’t seem right.” He commented while talking to the crowd.
Derick Warwick was there to talk about the BRDC Autosport young driver of the year award along with all the finalists but he also spoke about the importance to Silverstone of having British drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button . He said without them to encourage attendance, it’s likely that the crowds would be considerably lower causing the event to make a loss.
The annual awards for the best stands were made today, Wirth Research received the Best Autosport Engineering Stand Award for its presence, which promoted its high technology, research and development capabilities.
“We are delighted to receive this award and to successfully showcase our performance engineering at Autosport International again this year,” Wirth Research’s Lisa Holloway said.
Another Autosport Engineering exhibitor, Newton Equipment was named as the Best Small Stand and XYZ Machine Tools was the winner of the Manufacturing Award. In the new Low Carbon Racing and Automotive Show, introduced to Autosport engineering as part of high-performance engineering’s general push towards greener solutions, Frost EV Systems claimed Best Stand honours.
“It’s fantastic for Frost EV, as a young innovative engineering company working in low carbon vehicle technology, to be awarded the Best Stand at the very first Low Carbon Racing and Automotive Show. We’ve had a really strong response from our involvement in the show and it’s made a great start to 2015,” said Richie Frost, Frost EV CEO.
In the main show area’s, Quaife received the Best Trade & Technical Stand Award as it starts its 50th anniversary, and Thyssenkrupp Bilstein Tuning the Best Overseas Stand Award.
Porsche was named as having the Best Overall Stand, while other winners included Pirelli, BTCC team Handy Motorsport, DEN Motorsport and Auto Finesse, the latter within the Performance Car Show.
Handy Motorsport boss and driver was delighted with his stand award and took to social networks to share the news with fans.
In other news, Anna Walewska was named as one of Bolton universities drivers who will be racing their new Ginetta LMP3 car. She will be joined by experienced racer Rob Garofall and Kelvin Fletcher, better known to many people as Andy Sugden from Emmerdale. Anna will be competing in both the VdeV championship and rounds of the ELMS (European Le Mans Series.)
“I’m very excited, it’s always been a dream to race at Le Mans and this deal is a massive step towards that. I can’t wait to get out on track.
Another female race, Zoë Wenham, spent much of last season in the Funcup championship with her brother guy. They had a lot of success but it’s not known yet if they will return in 2015.
Funcup cars, resemble VW Beetles from the outside but actually not a single part on them comes from a VW Beetle and they are actually very rapid purpose built racing cars. Although Zoë’s future currently isn’t known Funcup had some news to report in that the cars will feature an uprated sequential gearshift system this season which will feature a paddle shift, F1 style gear change. They will also be allowing two way radio communication from the pits to the cars for the first time. The championship, which has become infamous in the national press as the race invaded by Brands track invader Jack Cottle, is actually a cost effective way to compete and gain experience in endurance racing.
As usual all sorts of national and club level championships are on show at in the exhibition halls, from the tiny Smart cars of the 4two cup right up to things like Britcar which offers endurance racing in cars like the big V8 engined Moslers. They have last season’s championship winning Ferrari on their stand.
Tomorrow will see the BWRDC Goldstar award winners announced. Anna Walewska mentioned earlier is among those nominated as well as 2014 Max5 Mk1 champion Amy Barker. The full details and winners will be included in our day three report.
With the first public day on Saturday, big crowds are expected. If you don’t yet have a ticket and fancy coming along, tickets are available on the door. All details are on www.autosportinternational.com By Marc Waller
