BBC’s Blue Peter Visits Three Sisters Race Circuit!
4th November 2005
Blue Peter’s director, Tim Fransham was looking for a new, unique challenge for their newest presenter, Zoë Salmon. The male dominated motorsport industry is a difficult place at best of times and with several female racing drivers doing particularly well around the globe, Tim wondered if it were possible for Zoë to drive a proper Formula 1 car?
As Three Sisters Race Circuit is one of the six places in the world where you can drive such a car, Tim got in touch with us, Three Sisters Race Circuit is home to Aintree Racing Drivers School, Europe longest established racing drivers school and we were happy to help, the scene was set.
Three Sisters Race Circuit built by WMBC in the 1970’s has been home to Aintree Racing Drivers School since 1993. The school provides driver training to thousands of UK and worldwide drivers every year. ‘We’re incredibly proud of the circuit and what we do at Three Sisters,’ advised circuit boss Peter Barnes. ‘The opportunity to work with the BBC on this exciting project was one that we had to grasp with both hands, it puts the circuit and the region on the map!’
The Formula 1 car is incredibly powerful. The high performance engine produces over 600bhp, six times the power of a normal road car. This thoroughbred engine requires a £15,000 complete re build every 1600 miles. The car weighs in at 600kg, so is remarkably light, the huge front are rear wings create so much ‘downforce’ that the grip generated means that this car could drive upside down on the roof of a tunnel once it reaches 90 mph (not yet tried…), the car has a top speed of over 200mph!
The man in charge of this awesome piece of machinery is local Champion Racing Driver, Neil Boardman. Born and bred in Leigh, Neil 29, started work at Three Sisters as a marshal 10 years ago. He joined the full time staff shortly after, working on the circuits kart fleet. Neil got the racing bug and competed in professional kart races, on a very tight budget, meanwhile he progressed throughout the ranks at the circuit and is now in charge of the Three Sisters fleet of race cars. Neil got his racing break last year when Haydock conservatory firm ‘Aztec Systems’ agreed to support his racing career, this year Neil entered the North West Formula Ford Championship, finished every race on the podium and became the Champion by winning the final two races. Neil has recently become one of the very few fully qualified ‘racing driver instructors’ and teaches other drivers how to improve their lap times.
It was therefore Neil’s responsibility to transfer as much of his car control and racecraft over to Zoë to enable her to drive the Formula 1 car. The tuition started off in the circuits Ferrari 355 so Zoë could learn the lines. Neil then honed Zoë’s skills in Formula Fords before being joined by Formula 1 Racing Driver, Sarah Kavanagh. Sarah flew in from Nice especially to help judge Zoë’s performance in a highly powerful Formula 3 car to decide whether she was capable of taming the Formula 1 car.
Zoë drove the Formula 3 car with precision and skill in wet and slippery conditions. Sarah did a run in the Formula 3 car and spun going into the tricky ‘Rogersons’ complex, Neil and Sarah therefore felt Zoë had performed admirably. ‘Zoë was very apprehensive about driving a road car quickly, her progressive performance has surprised us all,’ advised Neil. ‘She has a very smooth driving style which is perfect for high powered single seaters, the conditions were at times, simply treacherous and her performance is all the more impressive.’
You can watch Zoë driving the Formula 1 car on Blue Peter on Friday 11 th November at 5pm.
For further information, contact:
Peter Barnes
01942 270230
or view:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/
www.sarahkavanagh.com