Sir Jackie Stewart OBE to attend Cranfield Motorsport Conference

Three-times Formula One World Champion, motorsport safety campaigner and former F1 team boss Sir Jackie Stewart will join leading motorsport figures for the first History of Motorsport Technology Conference & Dinner at Cranfield University on 3 July 2012.

The History of Motorsport Technology Conference will be an integral part of National Motorsport Week 2012, held between the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

In association with media partner Motor Sport Magazine, the conference covers:

• Ground effects from the 1920s
• Technology and the Land Speed Record
• The major schools of motorsport engineering
• The problem with secrets and lies
• Engineering insights from an innovator's career: the remarkable Colin Chapman
• F1 race car design and development in the 1960s and 1970s
• Group C: a decade of change
• Impact testing of F1 cars since the 1980s
• Race car simulator development
• MotoGP: Honda's RC211V; it was all in the metal
• Motorsport Valley UK - past, present and future

Organised by Cranfield's Motorsport Engineering & Management Programme Director Clive Temple, speakers include Peter Wright, Joe Saward, Karl Ludvigsen, Brian O'Rourke, Mike Pilbeam, Neil Spalding, Graham Humphrys, David Tremayne, Mark Hughes, Chris Aylett, Professor Mark Jenkins, Graham Campion and Charles Armstrong-Wilson. Luke Crowley, Craig Scarborough and Mick Hill will display their illustrations and posters, covering technical developments, in the atrium.

There will be a display of competition cars, from the early years to a modern Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 car, which reflect some of these key technical developments. It will be a full day's programme, including a keynote address given by Peter Wright, together with a networking lunch. Tea and coffee will be available at registration.

Following the conference there will be a dinner. Guest of honour at the dinner is Sir Jackie Stewart OBE. Radio Le Mans John Hindhaugh will act as MC. In recognition of William Boddy MBE, there will be the Bill Boddy Award for the best presentation on the day.

By organising this conference - the first in a series of annual conferences dedicated to motorsport - Cranfield University is setting out to recognise both the contributions of our engineers and the historians and journalists who have charted these developments. It is considered that the latter groups should receive greater recognition of their work academically.

For more information and to book your place, please visit: www.motorsportconference.com.