F1 supports National Motorsport Week

Celebrating the UK’s position at the epicentre of global motor sport, the Motor Sports Association (MSA) is teaming up with all eight of the UK-based Formula One teams to offer a wide range of unique competition prizes as an integral part of this year’s National Motorsport Week.

Established by the MSA and Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), National Motorsport Week 2012 runs from 30 June to 8 July – a high profile period for the sport featuring both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix.

Marking the occasion, a series of competitions offering a large number of special ‘money can’t buy’ prizes – including factory tours, signed F1 components and even opportunities to become team members for a day – will all be hosted on the MSA’s Go Motorsport website ( www.GoMotorsport.net) over the coming weeks. Competitions kick off on Wednesday this week with a chance for winners to become a team member of Mercedes AMG Petronas and Caterham F1 teams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

“While National Motorsport Week on one hand aims to encourage and assist more people to get involved in all areas motor sport, it also provides us with the perfect platform from which to celebrate this country’s on-going role right at the forefront of Formula One,” said Colin Hilton, Chief Executive of the MSA. “The vast majority of F1 teams are based in this country and we’ve also produced no fewer than ten F1 world champions – far more than any other nation. These competitions not only help us to underline this dominance but also provide fans with some really unique prizes.”

Underlining the UK’s leading position at the pinnacle of the sport, six of the seven grands prix staged so far this season have been won by cars designed and built in this country. Two British drivers – Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton – have also scored victories with Hamilton currently leading the FIA Formula One World Championship title chase after his latest win in Canada.

BRITISH MOTOR SPORT ACHIEVEMENTS

The Sport
• Britain has produced more F1 World Champions than any other nation with ten title winners; Brazil and Finland are next up with three each.
• Two of the last three F1 World Champions are British – Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
• More British drivers (32) have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans than those representing any other nation, including France (27).
• Guernseyman Andy Priaulx MBE is one of only two drivers to have won three World Touring Car Championship titles.
• The reigning IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 champion is Dario Franchitti from Scotland.
• The UK host rounds of the three premier FIA World Championships: FIA Formula 1 World Championship, FIA World Rally Championship and the new FIA World Endurance Championship.
• There are more than 32,000 MSA Competition Licence holders in the UK.
• The UK hosts almost 5,000 MSA sanctioned motor sport events every year including: autocross, autotest, circuit racing, cross-country, drag racing, hillclimbing, karting, rallycross, rallying, sprinting, time attack and trials.

The Industry
• British-based constructors have won no fewer than 37 F1 Constructors’ Championships well ahead of Italian (16) and French (1) based companies.
• Eight of the 12 current F1 teams are based in the UK and four have already won a Grand Prix in 2012.
• British built cars won 18 from 19 Grands Prix in 2011.
• Two of the three premier World Rally Championship teams are based in the UK.
• The top ten finishers on the 2011 Wales Rally GB were all British-built cars.
• The FIA World Touring Car Championship winning team is based in the UK.
• UK companies dominate the design and manufacture of components used in the majority of the world’s competition categories.
• More than 4,000 UK companies are involved in the technology driven world of UK Motorsport and Performance Engineering Industry with an annual turn-over of £6 billion – of which £3.6 billion exported.
• These innovative businesses invest more than 30 per cent of their sales into R&D when the UK pharmaceutical industry invests 15 per cent.
• Motorsport supports nearly 40,000 full and part-time jobs of which 25,000 are qualified engineers.

Editors’ notes: National Motorsport Week is jointly organised by the Motor Sports Association, governing body of UK motor sport, and the Motorsport Industry Association, the sport’s UK trade association.

Photo caption: National Motorsport Week celebrates the best of best motor sport. For high-resolution image please click here.

For more information: www.gomotorsport.net or www.nationalmotorsportweek.co.uk.

Or contact: Jonathan Gill or Deborah Tee, MPA Creative, High Barn, Effingham, Surrey KT24 5PR.
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Phone: +44 (0)1372 414120 or +44 (0)7860 563000/+44 (0)7785 924400