McNish scoops top award 15 | 04 | 2014
SCOTLAND'S MOST SUCCESSFUL sportscar racer, Allan McNish, has been awarded Britain's top motorsport award, the Segrave Trophy.
Presented by the Royal Automobile Club in London, the trophy is awarded for "outstanding skill, courage and initiative on land, water and in air – the Spirit of Adventure".
McNish, the 43-year-old from Dumfries, who announced his retirement in December, has won the Le Mans 24-Hours three times and been acknowledged as the best sportscar racer in the world.
Last year he became the first Brit to claim the Tourist Trophy — by winning the Silverstone Six-Hour race last April — the Le Mans 24 Hours, and the FIA World Endurance Championship all in the same year.
“I am extremely honoured to receive this prestigious trophy again,” Audi ambassador McNish, pictured with his all-conquering race car and trophies at the Royal Automobile Club today, said at the award ceremony. “I've tried to tick all the boxes in my racing career, and excel in every kind of racing I have taken part in.
“I’d also like to accept it on behalf of all those who have helped me achieve success in my career, both those in the teams I have raced with, and especially my family.”
Since making his Audi sportscar debut in 2000, McNish has contested 89 races, scoring 66 top-three “podiums” — including 29 outright race wins — for “factory” or “customer” Audi teams that also netted three American Le Mans Series titles.
Related: McNish gets BBC F1 role
The Scot won the Le Mans 24-Hour races in 1998, 2008 and last year – scoring a further six top-three podiums”in his 14 attempts in the world's most famous endurance race.
“Jackie Stewart told me this was probably one of the most prestigious trophies I could win in my career," McNish continued, "and to win it twice is just incredible.
“I was moved seeing some of the previous Segrave winners today and noting their achievements.”
Fellow Scot Tom Purves, chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, said: “Two of the qualities we award the Segrave Trophy for are outstanding skill and courage.
“Allan certainly showed his skill and natural talent from his earliest days in a racing car. He has also proved himself in one of the toughest areas of motorsport: 24-hour endurance racing.
“In awarding him this trophy again, the Club is acknowledging those essential qualities as much as the considerable achievement of winning the Tourist Trophy, Le Mans and the World]Championship in the same season. As he retires, we honour one of this country’s great racing drivers.”
The Segrave Trophy is named after British pilot and pre-war racing driver Sir Henry Segrave who pushed himself and his machines to the very limit in the pursuit of ultimate speed.
He was the first man to hold both land and water speed records, though the latter would cost him his life in 1930.
Previous holders of the trophy include Amy Johnson (1932), Donald Campbell (1958), Sir Jackie Stewart (1973) and Carl Fogarty (1994).
Related: Tunnock's powers McNish to Le Mans 24-Hours win
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Jim McGill