HGPCA Anounces New Secretary

[rogerwills]

I think the HGPCA news is in the public domain as it was in the newsletter already:

Replacing Martin Grant Peterkin has been a virtually impossible task. The man
and the job are synonymous but he is determined to retire and so a small sub-committee was set up, firstly to define what the job entailed and then to find candidates.
We were very pleased to receive applications from a group of excellent people
and are very happy to be able to welcome Marcus Pye as our new Competition
Secretary, starting in January.

A few words from Martin
“Back in the mid 1980s after five years work for the VSCC as their Competition Secretary I got itchy feet and left (this happens to army folk who move jobs every three or four years). I purchased the Alta and joined the Association as a means of entry into exciting overseas race meetings. Attending the HGPCA AGM at an Earls Court restaurant, Peter Hannen, then a member of the Committee, discovered that I had been appointed as the UK representative to the FIA Historic Commission and, without further discussion, I was elected to the HGPCA committee. A couple of years later I was asked to assume the post of Competition Secretary. “It has been a wonderful two decades; not only have I been closely involved with my hobby, historic motor racing, but I have also made some great friends and, of course, as I mentioned at the lunch, you have paid me for my work! “In the early 90s the Association was supporting four or five events each year with a grid of frontengine Grand Prix cars. In 2011 we will be at eight different circuits with both front and rearengine grids and also a sports-car grid. The job has expanded! I shall miss my close involvement with you all at our events but plan to still be around - perhaps not climbing on the roof of the Red Truck though! “I am delighted that Marcus has been chosen to follow me as Competition Secretary; a man with encyclopaedic knowledge of motor racing, his enthusiasm will ensure that the Association remains at the pinnacle of our sport. “

Marcus Pye said:
“It is with delight, but not a little trepidation, that from January 2011 I take over the role of Competition Secretary from our esteemed colleague Martin Grant Peterkin, an omnipresent force within the HGPCA management for more than 20 years. “Martin is a very difficult act to follow, since he has seemingly been entrenched in historic racing – as competitor, MSA/FIA sage and VSCC figurehead - forever. I am comforted, however, that his knowledge and wise counsel are only a phone call away. “Like Martin’s my background in the sport is varied. Many of you will know me as Autosport’s voice of national and historic racing since 1977, commentator at Goodwood, Spa and other venues, and consultant to the MSA. An ardent competitor since 1981, my fascination with the Grand Prix cars of my youth has seen me race twice with the HGPCA - in Duncan Dayton’s Lola Mk4 and John Clark’s Cooper T43. “The opportunity to serve the HGPCA, under the dynamic chairmanship of Barry Cannell, is a very prestigious one and I relish the challenges ahead. I look forward to meeting new friends, and enjoying the company of existing ones and wonderful cars, across what is a superb calendar.”