A GROUP of primary school children will receive VIP treatment when they visit the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship’s official Media Day at Rockingham this week.
The Northamptonshire circuit has invited Year 5 and 6 pupils from Gretton Primary School as its special guests as part of the racing series successful school visit programme.
The nine-to-11-year-olds will visit the circuit on Wednesday (March 12) to meet the drivers and watch the cars in action from Britain’s premier motor racing championship.
Director of Sales & Marketing at Rockingham, Charlotte Orton, said: “Gretton Primary School is celebrating its centenary this year and, as one of our local schools, we are delighted to invite them as our special guests. This will probably be some of the children’s first visit to Rockingham and we want to make it a memorable event. They will receive a special behind-the-scenes tour and have the opportunity to meet some of the teams.”
The BTCC teams will be at Rockingham to take part in the championship’s official Media Day, and the drivers will take time out of their busy testing session to welcome the youngsters. The visit will include garage tours of Arkas Racing, Robertshaw Racing and John Guest Racing and the children will see the teams in action working on the their race cars during an actual live practice session on track.
Some of the BTCC’s star drivers will also be available to meet the Gretton pupils for autographs, photos and questions. The youngsters will also visit the Dunlop/HiQ truck to see the technical side of motor racing. The behind the scenes tour was organised in conjunction with the BTCC’s school visit programme, which is traditionally held on the Friday before a circuit host its race meeting.
However, due to the Rockingham race meeting falling in the middle of the school holidays the circuit has instead brought the visit forward, but other Northamptonshire school children have not been forgotten. Rockingham launched a competition for school children aged seven to 11 to design a promotional poster, which shows the different cars that have raced in the series over the past five decades.
The competition, which closes on Thursday, March 20, will be judged by a star touring car driver, who will visit the winner and their class to present them with some superb art equipment. The winner will also receive family VIP hospitality at Rockingham’s BTCC meeting on Sunday, April 13, plus a signed, framed edition of their poster courtesy of John Guest Racing.
In addition, each child who enters the competition will receive a free ticket for themselves and an accompanying adult, to come and watch the drivers battle it out in rounds four, five and six of the championship. If you are looking for a fantastic family day out during the school holidays, there will be plenty of entertainment off it, including the amazing Blades air display, a fire-eater and live music from the last five decades.
Children aged 15 and under get in free, while adult tickets cost £21, if booked in advance. Tickets can be booked via the ticket hotline on 0870 2310846 or at rockingham.co.uk/btcc - the official Rockingham website.
