The trophy is named after Sir Henry Segrave, the pioneering racing driver and first person to hold both the land and water world speed records simultaneously. In 1927 he became the first person to travel at over 200mph in a land vehicle, setting the record in front of 30,000 onlookers at Daytona Beach in Florida. After increasing the record to 231mph in 1929, he turned his attention to becoming the fastest man on water. In setting a new record of 98mph at Lake Windermere in June 1930, his boat struck a piece of debris and, although Sir Henry was found alive in the water, he succumbed soon afterwards from his injuries. The trophy was commissioned by Lady Segrave in his memory.

The rollcall of winners is extraordinary, from the well-known such as Stirling Moss and Nigel Mansell, to the dynasty of Cambell’ s – Sir Malcolm and Donald – as well as ground breakers such as Amy Johnson, who in 1932 flew single handed from London to Cape Town, a distance of over

6,300 miles covered in six days and four hours. That included a 1,300-mile traverse of the Sahara at night with nothing resembling a GPS! Brave indeed.

So, it was a great pleasure to attend the lunchtime award ceremony for 2025 with the recipient being the brilliantly successful sports car driver, Nick Tandy. Nick has broken the record book on endurance racing, achieving victories in the four greatest 24-hour races at Le Mans, Nürburgring, Spa, and Daytona. Once again that theme of persistence in maintaining momentum is illustrated given the 10-year span of these achievements and the need for the stars to align so perfectly and consistently when relying not only on yourself but also a team of other drivers. This is illustrated by Nick’ s performance at Le Mans where he has competed on 13 occasions and suffered a heart breaking seven DNF’ s, interspersed with that famous victory in 2015. Nick was humble in his acceptance and somewhat in awe of the roll call of heroes that he now joins in the record books.

Royal Automobile Club

Over the summer there have been several events that celebrate the 30th anniversary of Colin McRae winning the driver’ s FIA World Rally Championship, alongside Derek Ringer. Both Goodwood and Shelsey Walsh have celebrated in style with thousands of fans showing homage to one of our greatest drivers and heroic personalities. At the end of September, the McRae Rally Challenge will be held at Knockhill and over two days we will see an array of cars and stars commemorating the man and the title. With this as a backdrop it is even more poignant that we are making progress towards the return of the World Rally Championship( WRC) to the UK with an event based in Scotland in 2027.

There are many different stakeholders in Scotland involved in both the decision making and with a vested interest in the delivery of the potential event. With this in mind, Motorsport UK took a contingent of guests from Scotland to the WRC Rally Finland to experience first-hand the scale and impact of the event. The rally based out of Jyväskylä has been running pretty much non-stop for the past 60 years and is a firm favourite for fans all around the world. But that does not mean they have rested on their laurels, as they continue to innovate and expand their repertoire, as expressed in their slogan which is‘ More Than A Rally’. Our ambition in Scotland is to take things to another level, building on the action at the heart of the show, with a whole range of other activations including the community and industry in the North-East of Scotland, all designed to ensure the greatest return on investment for the government and people there.

Nick Tandy was awarded the Seagrave Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club

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Revolution- August 2025