Motorsport News Selection Day

Date: 25th February 2009

On a cold but dry Wednesday morning in February an enthusiastic gaggle of Motosports Future members rolled up to Bill Gwynne Rallyschool to begin the selection process for Drive'09. The ten finalists were contacted and all ten travelled from all corners of Britain try their luck at the prize scholarship. The competition finalists were so eager some of the turned up over an hour and a half early.

A morning of rigorous driving tests awaited them followed by an afternoon of team building and a grilling from Jess Fack, Josh Veale, Nick Pollitt and Motorsports News' Sean Moriaty. All survived, just.

First off was a demonstration from John Moffatt and Sam Williams on the Autosolo that they were to drive just moments later. They were assessed on their driving technique, their ability to handle the car and their capabilities to listen and learn. Amazingly every driver impressed us. The decision was going to be hard.

The rallyschool was kind enough to let these unknowns loose in a Mark 2 Escort. Nick was brave enough to sit next to our contestants while he monitored their driving skills and their ability to listen again.  Again all were impressive, and none of their ears bled after hearing Pollitt for 3 minutes solid. 

The team building and interview sessions were then done after an amazing lunch cooked by the culinary genius Pete Gwynne.

Once the interviews were carried out the candidates had a nervous wait while the MSF team deliberated, debated and argued as to who should win the scholarship. Eventually, three finalists were decided on one of which would be the overall winner.

 

Scholarship winner:   Graeme Jones

Runners Up:   James Brown

                     Paul Haines

 

We would like to thank Gill Gwynne Rallyschool for their kind hospitality.

Also a big thank you goes to Matt Humphris of Humpris Nissan for his amazing generosity and help towards preparing the Micra for the year.

MSF members attended: Jo Preston, Josh Veale, Jess Fack, Andy Egger, John Moffatt, Sam Williams and Nick Pollitt.