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Scot's Girl Wins 2007 Jim Clark Memorial Award |
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Saturday, 19 May 2007 |
The Association of Scottish Motoring Writers has awarded 28-year-old Lee McKenzie, TV motorsport presenter and rally co-driver, the prestigious Jim Clark Memorial Award for 2007. It has been given in recognition of her unique style and professional approach towards TV presenting which has seen Lee travel more than 300,000 miles in two years, more than 12 times around the world, to report on various high-profile motorsport events for ITV, Channel 5 and Sky. The Jim Clark Memorial trophy, sponsored by Ford, is awarded to Scottish people who have made a major contribution to the world of motoring. Previous winners include Sir Jackie Stewart, Colin McRae, Tom Walkinshaw, Alan McNish, Robert Reid and, last year, jointly to Ian and Moray Callum, designers at Jaguar and Ford. Presenting the award, Stephen Park, president of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers, said: "The Jim Clark award has always been about acknowledging the success of Scots who work in various aspects of the automotive industry and awarding our accolade to Lee McKenzie highlights this. "It’s usually the drivers who are crowned in glory and have celebrity status but if it wasn’t for the TV presenters we probably wouldn’t be aware of their on-track achievements. The personable presenting style of people like Lee is what makes viewers switch on each week and tune in to motorsport programmes and the ASMW wish her every success for the future."
Lee, from Ayr, also has an international co-drivers licence, which she
was challenged to achieve as part of the ITV’s 'Speed Sunday'
programme. Coached by former World Champion co-driver Robert Reid from
Perth (a previous Jim Clark Award winner), Lee successfully completed
several British rounds and the WRC event Rally GB and has since gone on
to compete in selected rounds of the Norwegian championship. The Jim
Clark Memorial Award is named after Jim Clark who, in a Lotus 49 at the
Dutch Grand Prix in 1967, gave Ford its first ever Formula One win with
the new Ford-Cosworth V8 Grand Prix engine. Collecting the award, Lee
said: Winning this award really means so much to me. There are some
great names already on the trophy and some are very good friends. The
first thing I did was phone a couple of drivers and show off! They are
used to winning but I am not! Robert Reid won the trophy when he won
the World Rally Championship with Richard Burns and he was my mentor
throughout my rally training so it is very special to have my name on
the same trophy. "I am missing a round of DTM to be here and I flew in
from Europe after covering four events in four cities in four days
for Champ Car and shortly head away again for the Monaco Grand Prix so
winning a trophy, named after such a legend makes the hotels and
jet-lag seems much more bearable! I absolutely love my job and I know
I am very lucky." "Anytime I compete I have the Saltire on my
overalls. I am very proud to be Scottish and it never fails to amaze
me the amount of talent we have coming out of this small country. The
drivers are the brave ones who deserve the praise. I just talk a lot on
TV!"
Lee began her career at the age of 15 writing a column for an Ayrshire
weekly newspaper and went on to work for Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM. She
moved to Border TV where she became the youngest person in the UK to
read the 6 o’clock news. After a stint covering horse racing for
Channel 4, At the Races, Lee was poached by ITV to cover their
motorsport, Speed Sunday, GP2 and Porsche Supercup. Now she travels
the world with A1GP, presenting the series in over 80 countries and for
Sky Sports and also attends F1 and DTM. Lee also has a PR company
looking after several high profile drivers and teams on the world stage.
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