Inside Motorcycles columnist earns award

From Bridgestone Canada Inc.

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ON – The story of a special performance driving school's annual ladies-only day at Race City in Alberta has earned journalist Greg Williams the 2009 Julie Wilkinson Motorsports Award presented by Bridgestone Canada Inc. (BSCA). The prize, which comes with a $500 cheque, was awarded at Wednesday's annual dinner held by the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC).

The Calgary-based writer's winning entry detailed the events of a special October day when the BMW Clubs of Alberta turned over their Advanced Driving School to a group of 25 women because, as Registrar Patti Duddridge Riegert said, "there are more women buying powerful cars and they quite simply don't know what their cars are capable of doing." The winning story recounted the classroom and track lessons and exercises that put the ladies and their cars through their paces on a heavy information day. 

"After taking the course, you will be safer on the roads because you will have learned the limits of your own car, and yourself," she said, an opinion shared by the students of the day.

Williams is a regular contributor to Inside Motorcycles. His Western Perspectives column appears in each issue and last year he began writing an Inside Vintage feature. He is also a columnist for the Calgary Herald.

The 2009 submissions were judged by Patrick Carpentier, veteran Canadian ChampCar, IRL and NASCAR driver, Cindy Hackelberg, managing consultant of Global Services, and Charles-André Marchand, sports journalist and the "voice" of the F1 Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal. The evaluation criteria included writing style, success at educating, passion imparted and entertainment value.

The Julie Wilkinson Motorsports Award, which BSCA began sponsoring a decade ago in 1999, is presented each year in memory of Julie Wilkinson, the Vancouver Croft House School graduate who undertook a distinguished career as a driver in several series and, later, was an automotive journalist who traveled internationally writing about motorsports.