South West Motor-sport

The South West of England has produced a rich vein of talented motor-sport competitors in recent years - including Jenson Button in Formula One, the late Mark Lovell in international rallying, Colin White the multiple short oval World Champion and ASCAR front-runner, and Jamie Davies, the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series Prototype Champion with Team Veloqx/Audi UK.

Local Authorities across the South West and elsewhere are now latching on to the power of motor-sport in promoting their counties and regions as good places in which to live and work and great locations for the inward investment necessary for the generation of new jobs and education opportunities.  Somerset County Council's Strategic Partnership, in particular, has grasped the nettle on this and is increasingly using the fact that there are motor-sporting "ambassadors" from the County regularly appearing on the world stage as a means of promoting Somerset globally.

On 21 December 2004, Somerset County Council commissioned the image below, which featured 11 of Somerset's 17 national and international racers at that time - pictured around Michael Schumacher's 1996 F1 Ferrari at the Haynes International Motor Museum near Yeovil, England.

From left to right are Josh Weber (ToCA Formula Renault), Alex Buncombe (ToCA Formula Renault/Sportscars), Chris Buncombe (FIA GT/Radicals/Sportscars), Adam Sharpe (Le Mans, LMES, British GT), Euan Alers-Hankey (UK Formula BMW), Jonathan Coleman (British GT/Sportscars), Keith White (Super Silhouettes), Gareth Penn (MG Championships), Steve Hall (Super Silhouettes), Colin White (ASCAR Days of Thunder/SCSA) and Millfield School Motor-Racing Sports Scholarship student, Sam Bird (seated in the car) - UK Formula BMW.   Jamie Davies, Felix Fisher (Formula Jedi), Joshua Fisher (British Formula Three), Craig Fleming (UK Formula BMW), Charles Hall (Champ Cars/British F3) and Ben Seyfried (Super Mighty Minis) had other commitments on the day and could not appear alas.

Roger Phillips, MD of Action Resources Ltd is a member of the Somerset4Business organisation, one of the Partners within the Somerset Strategic Partnership, due to his involvement with the Federation of Small Businesses, and he is also motor-racing correspondent for BBC Somerset Sound.

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SOUTH WEST MOTOR-SPORT : Meet the Drivers