SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015 - Southern Group of Motoring Writers

SOUTH
BOUND
NUMBER TWELVE
NEWSLETTER OF
SPRING 2015
SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015 1
What a night!
The Southern Group’s second annual Karting Grand Prix was full of action, fun and camaraderie. We were
very gratified at having such an enthusiastic participation by our motor industry PR chums and their
colleagues. Twenty teams of racers competed very energetically for the trophies, including the star prize of a
year’s ownership of the splendid new SGMW Karting Grand Prix winner’s steering wheel trophy.
As well as three hours of non-stop racing, accompanied by lively socialising, we also had a non-stop
flow of all-you-can-eat freshly cooked pizza. It wasn’t exactly fine dining, but on a cold February night it
went down a treat.
The group’s fun team of Haggarthy, Pini and Rees did a magnificent job of pulling it all together, and
there were in total some 100 of us at the TeamSport Crawley indoor karting track, where the Grand Prix
and Le Mans circuit combine into one spectacular three-tier track that is fast, twisty and demandingly
slippery.
Eleven group members hosted the evening: I was accompanied by events coordinator Chris Rees,
karting ‘Fun Brothers’ Kevin Haggarthy and Massimo Pini, group secretary Ian Robertson, publicity officer
Steve Loader, and members Peter Cracknell, Tom Scanlan, Martin Gurdon, Graham Heeps and Brian
Laban.
Amongst all the industry teams of kart racers, supported by participating Southern Group members,
there was also one team comprising paramedics from Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance. This was our
chosen charity as beneficiary for the evening’s fund-raising alongside the kart competition. The group is
proud to have been able to hand over a cheque for £4,350 to KSSAA, who have bases at Marden in Kent
and Redhill in Surrey, from where they take A&E to the roadside around our region.
It was tough on Fiat, the inaugural victors last year, that we could only allow them brief ownership of
our newly-manufactured winner’s trophy before it was wrested away by this year’s winners. Congratulations
to Peugeot on a clear victory. Also to the highly competitive Renault, Audi and Ford teams who chased
them so hard, to Fiat for again finishing in the top five, and to the KSSAA paramedics who
completed the top six.
Will we do it all again? Yes, next year.
Sue Baker
Chairman
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PHOTOS: CHRIS MANNING
BIGGER AND BETTER SGMW
KARTING GRAND PRIX RAISES
EVEN MORE FOR AIR
AMBULANCE
Now established as an annual highlight of the motor industry PR world,
the Southern Group of Motoring Writers’ charity Karting Grand Prix turbocharged its fund -raising by
more than £1,000 this year.
Group chairman Sue Baker was able to hand over a cheque for £4,350 towards the lifesaving work
of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance – easily topping 2014’s £3,325 cash injection.
This year’s event was also, by common consent, even better, with 20 rather than 17 teams lining up
for a night of thrills, spills and spins at TeamSport Karting in Crawley on Thursday February 5,
watched by many colleagues and supporters.
One of the tweaks most appreciated was the use of ‘novice boards’ for karts driven by the less
experienced, a measure of protection against the more competitive elements; trackside marshals were
then able to deal more severely with transgressors – and there were a few.
With more fair play, the endurance relay format then ensured that team drivers of all abilities could
SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015 3
MATHEW BELL
play their part as they tore round the
three-storey twisting course.
Competition was tight with three of the
top four teams separated by a single
point, though Peugeot was the clear
winner on 142 points and received the
competition trophy – based on a splendid
Moto-Lita leather-covered sports steering
wheel – relinquished by last year’s
winner, Fiat, which took a creditable fifth
place this time out.
The other podium places were 2 –
Renault (137 points) and 3 - Audi (136)
with Ford narrowly missing out on 135,
and Performance Communications
gaining a ‘special’ prize for attracting the
most black flag penalties.
Top drivers were: 1 – Bradley Philpot
(Peugeot), 2 – Paul Rivett (Renault) and 3 – Jake Cassetta (Ford).
The charity cause – for the second year running – is one close to the hearts of the group’s
motoring writers and their readers: nearly half of all Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance’s 999
scrambles are for road
accidents, but the twohelicopter service needs £6.5
million annually to maintain
its 365-days-a-year lifesaving
missions to the region’s 4.5
million people.
Three air ambulance
paramedics, Ben Macaulay,
Charlie Leahy and Lewis
Allum, joined the racing and
their team achieved an
impressive sixth place before
making their thanks and
accepting the donation,
enough to fund two
potentially lifesaving missions.
Sue Baker said afterwards:
“The karting event was staged
at the same time last year as a
one-off fun event to entertain
the SGMW’s valued contacts in
motor industry PR.
“Devised by two of our
members, Kevin Haggarthy and
Massimo Pini, it was then
executed brilliantly by events
officer Chris Rees, and we
thought that was the end of it
but the ‘motoring PR corps’
had other ideas. So, by popular
4 SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015
demand it is now part of the calendar, with its own
coveted trophy.”
Commenting on this year’s racing, Massimo Pini
said: “The novice boards were definitely a success,
ensuring that the inexperienced were given proper
respect. But we were even more surprised this year,
shall we say, by the depth of driving talent in some PR
departments, though other teams fielded genuine
rookies who should be proud of their achievements.
“Last year’s event created quite a buzz on social
media, so this year the Southern Group’s newlylaunched Twitter account (@SGMWupdates) set up a
dedicated hashtag – #SGMWkarting – to help
participants keep up with the sporting banter – before,
during and after the race. Many of our guests are
clearly avid users of Twitter so the hashtag was wellreceived, and we’re pleased to report that no-one was
harmed during the taking of any selfies!
SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015 5
Kevin Jones and the Peugeot team on the winners’ podium.
All competing teams (in no particular order): Jaguar, MINI -BMW, Vauxhall, Newspress, Suzuki,
Volvo, Citroën, KSS Air Ambulance, Peugeot, FIAT, Audi, Porsche, Lexus, Ford, Renault, Land Rover,
Hyundai, Performance Comms, Toyota and Honda.
Top teams: Peugeot, Renault and Audi.
6 SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: SUE BAKER
top left: Massimo and Chris direct operations; top right:
Tom and Brian keep their hats on for Kath Nebbett; bottom
left: Kevin discusses his human cannonball act with Peter
Cracknell; bottom right: Two members of KSSAA’s
paramedics team.
THE KENT SURREY AND SUSSEX AIR AMBULANCE
Founded in 1989, the group now operates two helicopters and has bases at Marden in Kent and Redhill
in Surrey. Its highly trained doctors and specialist paramedics can even perform roadside emergency
chest and heart surgery.
KSS Air Ambulance recently became the first air ambulance service to operate a 24-hour service – pilots
use military spec night-vision gear - and also to carry blood for transfusions, an innovation made
possible by donations from the Henry Surtees Foundation, set up in memory of the son of former
World motorcycle and Formula 1 champion John Surtees. Henry died from head injuries sustained in a
Formula 2 race at Brands Hatch in 2009.
The service itself is no stranger to tragedy, having lost three of its team members when their helicopter
crashed at Burham, Kent, in 1998.
Unable to call on any government funding, it also faces a constant battle for donations. As one air
ambulance beneficiary said after recovery from a potentially fatal fall: “I assumed it was part of the NHS.
I didn’t realise it was publicly funded. I’m so grateful that they were there when I needed them.”
SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015 7
From Mike Orford, Head of PR, Porsche
On behalf of 'Team Porsche', I'd like to say a big thank you for another enjoyable,
successful and well organised Grand Prix meeting yesterday evening. We all had a blast
once again.
Karting aside, it's great to socialise with colleagues not only from the SGMW, but also
from other Press Offices. And raising more than £4,000 for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex
Air Ambulance Service was an admirable achievement.
We love the event and will definitely be back in 2016 for more!
From Craig Morrow, Press Fleet Coordinator, Peugeot-Citroën
Great evening again, please pass on my thanks to all your members for hosting the event.
Katie Read, Senior Press Officer, Citroën
Thanks to you all for a great afternoon / evening on behalf of Team Citroën.
We significantly improved on our performance from 2014 and will hope to do even
better in 2016, maybe even beat our Peugeot colleagues!
Jeremy Townsend, Communications Director, Renault
“Thanks for an excellent evening last night and it was great to assist in the fundraising for
such a worthy cause. We are already looking forward to next year!”
Nikki Rooke, Head of Corporate Communications, Volvo
Thank you for organising a fun event. I was reasonably happy with our mid-table ranking
– I’d asked for top 5 which we pretty much were once you took out the pros. It was a
really great, if not a little chilly, evening. I will definitely remember the socks next time!
Kim Palmer, Public Relations Manager, Land Rover UK
A huge thank you from the Land Rover UK PR team for hosting us yesterday. We had an
absolute ball, and are all a bit achy from the thrills and spills of the kart track! We would
obviously urge an off-road section next year just to balance the tables.
Jade Wells, Press Officer, Suzuki
Thanks for such a great event, was really enjoyable. The Fun Team did an excellent job.
Tillie Smith, Corporate Affairs, Honda
Thank you all for organising and Massimo for helping us out. Despite coming last we still
had a great time (its about the taking part that counts eh!)
Sarah Pelling, Press Officer, Land Rover
I love the event, the only suggestion is I would like to make it no pro drivers, I feel it
should be PR teams only.
Erica Haddon, PR Operation Manager, Toyota
It was great to be able to support the event (even though I wasn't driving). Everyone
seemed to have a great deal of fun!
8 SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015
SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015 9
COMINGS AND GOINGS
RETIREES
Southern Group stalwarts, Ray Potter and Graham Fryer
have decided to change their status from Life Member to
‘Retired’, though this doesn’t mean any cutting of ties with
the group. In fact, Ray and Viv have kindly offered to host
members for another wonderful summer party at their
Herrtfordshire estate.
Chairman
SUE BAKER
Tel: 0208 300 2140
Mob: 07885 622555
[email protected]
Vice-Chairman
DAVE WARD
Tel: 01245 603334
Mob: 07802 501799
[email protected]
Treasurer
JACKIE VIOLET
Tel: 01883 722468
Mob: 07729 861832
[email protected]
Secretary
IAN ROBERTSON
Tel: 01268 288515
Mob: 07976 438872
[email protected]
Publicity
STEVE LOADER
Tel: 01233 721433
Mob: 07831 523742
[email protected]
Events
CHRIS REES
Tel: 01344 624389
Mob: 07721 913282
[email protected]
SGMW ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Annual General Meeting of the Southern Group will take place at the
Aviator Hotel, Farnborough, on the 31st March and 1st April, courtesy of
DS-Peugeot-Citroën.
JOURNALISTS WANTED
to contribute to this newsletter.
Do you qualify?
Your editor wants to hear
from you.
10 SOUTHBOUND Spring 2015
Handbook
CHRIS MANNING
Tel: 01245 355631
Mob: 07950 904860
[email protected]
Website
MASSIMO PINI
Tel: 0207 267 7002
Mob: 07957 460042
[email protected]
Custodian of the Great Book
PETER CRACKNELL
Tel: 01590 645889
Mob: 07952 599493
[email protected]
Newsletter
DAVE RANDLE