Aintree motorsport club honoured in competition

AN AINTREE organisation which helps to keep the town's connections with motor racing alive has been praised in a national motorsport competition.

Aintree Circuit Club was named as one of six motorsport organisations which reached the finals of the MSA Club of the Year 2012 competition, after their work in organising motoring events in the north west, notably the Ormskirk MotorFest, was praised by the judges at the Motorsport Industry Association.

Mike Ashcroft, the club's chairman, said: "The club is delighted to receive this reward from the MIA and came very close to winning at our first attempt.

”Our motorsport display in Ormskirk alongside the themed market certainly attracted a lot of attention and promoted the sport and motoring in a very positive way as well as providing something different for visitors to the town centre."

The overall winner was the South of Scotland Car Club, but Aintree Circuit Club has been presented with £100 for reaching the finals of the contest.

The club, which has organised the Ormskirk MotorFest for the past two years, helps to promote Aintree's historic connections with motor racing, including the five occasions when the town's circuit hosted the British Grand Prix.

MIA spokesperson Helen Jones said: ”We received a number of entry forms from MSA clubs who took part, and due to the high standard of applications, this initially proved difficult for our judges to decide upon an overall winner.

“The judges were so impressed with the quality of the top six, that they feel all should be publicly commended.”

To find out more about the club, visit their website at www.aintree.org.uk or call 0151 525 9314.

Ormskirk MotorFest 2012 preparations move up a gear

PREPARATIONS are well under way for a motorsport spectacular later this month - and you're invited to join the action.

With less than three weeks to go before the Ormskirk MotorFest rolls into town in Sunday, August 26, the borough council and organisers Aintree Circuit Club are making final calls for volunteers to act as marshals and for owners of racing machines from the 1950s and 1960s to bring their vehicles to the event.

Councillor Martin Forshaw, the council's portfolio holder for planning and development, said: “We are all getting very excited about this year’s Ormskirk MotorFest. Make sure you put the event’s date in your diary and don’t miss a thoroughly enjoyable event.”

Last year's MotorFest helped Ormskirk enjoy its busiest ever trading day, with more than 10,000 visitors packing into the town centre, and this year the council, Aintree Circuit Club and main sponsors The Belfry Group are determined the event will be even bigger.

Among those who have already offered to help are members of residents' group New Way Tenants and Residents Association, who told Life On Cars that they would be volunteering as marshals to the positive impact the car and bike spectacular has on Ormskirk.

Group member Jane Thompson said: “The MotorFest is an excellent day out and I am in full support.

"This is an excellent event which puts Ormskirk on the map. Members of NWTRA are volunteering to help promote Ormskirk market town."

Organisers Aintree Circuit Club have also launched their new Friends of Ormskirk MotorFest scheme this week, which for a membership cost of £5 gets visitors a collector's badge, a specially-produced event brochure - and the chance to get a ride in one of the event's more exotic entrants around the streets of Ormskirk.

Signed up to appear are supercars and competition motorcycles, including one ridden by the late Joey Dunlop, a former world motorcycling champion. There will also be MG racing and rally cars, Metro 6R4, Group B rally cars and racing motorcycles, and the Santa Pod Raceway Top Fuel Dragster. Some of the vehicles will take part in parade laps around the town, and static displays will be on Moor Street, Aughton Street and Coronation Park.

If you have a competition car you'd like to enter, would like to volunteer as a marshal or would simply like more information about the event, visit the official Ormskirk MotorFest website at www.ormskirkmotorfest.com

Video: Aintree Race Circuit sprint day with Liverpool Motor Club

WITH the Grand National out of the way, scores of budding Jenson Buttons have taken over Aintree with a rather different sort of horsepower.


Today more than 140 keen motorsport fans took to the historic Aintree Race Circuit – which shares the same locations and grandstands as the legendary horse race – to take part in the first of a season of sprints and track days organised by Liverpool Motor Club.

Club chairman, John Harden, told Life On Cars: "We’re giving people value for money, and at a safe and historic venue that people like. We try not to be too officious, and try to help people whenever we can. People like it, which is why a lot of them keep coming back.

"We’ve got everything here, from roadgoing Minis right through to a Formula One-engined single seater racing car, and because it’s not fair to have something like a Mini competing against the big cars they’re all split into classes, so that all the drivers are competing against similar cars at similar speeds. "

 The Aintree circuit – which hosted a series of Grand Prix races in the 1950s and 1960s – saw an eclectic variety of vehicles putting in hot laps at the Grand National venue, including everything from a roadgoing Fiat Panda, Lotus and Caterham sports cars, and single-seater racing cars. The event’s organisers are keen to promote the events as a value for money way to enjoy motorsport at an historic venue associated with F1 greats including Jim Clark and Jack Brabham.

The club uses a shortened version of the original Grand Prix circuit for its sprint events every summer, with competitors driving past the jumps used in the Grand National in their bid to set as fast as time as possible in their respective classes. The venue is also used to hold track days, which allow keen petrolheads to put their cars through their paces in a safe environment. Liverpool Motor Club are holding a series of events at the circuit between now and September, including a track day on May 26, which are all open to spectators.

For more information about the club visit their website at www.liverpoolmotorclub.com. To watch the video simply click below...