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BBC’s Blue Peter Visits Three Sisters
Race Circuit!
 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 race craft 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 11th
November at 5pm.
For further information, contact:
Peter Barnes
01942 270230
peter@racing-school.co.uk
or view:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/
www.sarahkavanagh.com
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