The Blair Project which champions grassroots racing drivers, has today announced a ground breaking strategic partnership with Student Motorsport, which will bring down the costs of motor racing for young talent, increase grassroots participation and drive the careers of young people in motorsports.
Student Motorsport is an online motorsport community which supports and connects young people, undergraduate and graduate students, institutions and professionals in the motorsport and engineering industries to fuel their career development.
Talented drivers from The Blair Project will work with young people from Student Motorsport in roles and areas such as mechanics, engineers, team operations, sponsorship, hospitality and logistics to form highly disciplined race teams under the Team Blair Racing banner. This winning mix will make participating in motorsport more affordable and accessible for many more young people, aid young karters transition to single seater cars, and provide valuable testing and track time using data analytics to improve driving and racing skills.
The partnership is a strong strategic fit, leveraging the two organisation’s respective strengths, to create an unrivalled solution in the sector across four main areas:
• Facilitate the launch of Team Blair Racing across the UK to provide a structured route to develop and progress the careers of young drivers, mechanics, engineers and team personnel from the grassroots to the highest echelons of motorsports.
• Establish and develop a new form of urban motorsports dedicated to fully electric racing with associated feeder series and championships. High level support already secured with a major metropolitan local authority and a leading university.
• Close the gender gap in motorsports through tailored development and promotion of female drivers and team personnel who can work and compete in motorsport and drive in championships such as Formula One and Formula E.
• Global roll out of this new business model for motor racing into established and aspiring grand prix host nations.
Further announcements will be made regarding applications of the partnership in the coming weeks and months.
Nile Henry, the CEO of TBP told us: “Motorsports has grown increasingly elitist, and is the preserve of the wealthy. We champion talented young drivers, mechanics and engineers from the grassroots by financing and managing their careers so they can compete on a level playing field – and excel!
Partnerships and collaborations with organizations like Student Motorsport enables us to innovate practical solutions to overcome the significant barriers that talented racers face trying to move up the motorsports ladder.
We are currently working with Student Motorsport to establish a new form of urban motorsport which will open up even more opportunities for young talent. It is set to revolutionize the world of motor racing!”
John Paul Latham, the founder of Student Motorsport added “When I started to develop the idea behind my vision for Student Motorsport I envisioned an online community that would support thousands of people in the UK and overseas. It was from my collective experience as a motorsport student, race team member and lecturer in motorsport that gave rise to the birth of Student Motorsport.
To make that vision become a reality I knew I that forging partnerships and working with organizations like The Blair Project would allow me to help young people. I am thrilled to be able to announce the start of the first partnership project with The Blair Project…what better start could we have than working with a cause with such fantastic values that Student Motorsport shares”.