A NEW course to develop specialist engineers for the British motorsport industry has been backed by fast-moving firms in Oxfordshire.

Cranfield University, in Bedfordshire, has won a Masters Training Package - worth £450,000 - from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to develop a postgraduate level programme in motorsport engineering and management.

Helen Meadows, of Cranfield University, said there had been considerable support for a postgraduate motorsport course among leading motorsport teams, such as Enstone-based Benetton, Prodrive, at Banbury, Bicester-based Reynard and British American Racing, at Brackley.

She said: "Britain leads the way in motorsport engineering. The expertise of UK companies and their personnel is recognised the world over.

"If Britain is to maintain this pre-eminence, then UK motorsport companies will need to recruit and retain suitably qualified graduates."

The course, which will start in October 2000, will be the first of its kind in the UK and can be taken either full or part-time.

It has the endorsement of the Motor Sports Association and the backing of the Motorsport Industry Association of which Cranfield University is a member.

Details of the course will be available from January 13 by contacting motorsport@cranfield.ac.uk or John Nixon, the course director for motorsport engineering and management, on 01234 754152.

A special motorsport website - www.motorsport.cranfield.ac.uk - will also be launched on the same day.

Story date: Thursday 30 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.