BARC North Western Centre is immensely proud to announce that BARC NW Chief Marshal, and Centre Committee Member, Margaret Simpson was awarded the prestigious Lord Wakefield Trophy at Motorsport UK’s Night of Champions in January.

Household motorsport names like Nigel Mansell, Ross Brawn, Malcolm Wilson, and Steve Rider were honoured at the event together with the sport’s leading drivers, volunteers, personalities, and community members. For marshals and officials in the North West, and for anyone who has attended an event at Oulton Park or Anglesey Circuit/Trac Môn, Margaret Simpson is as highly regarded as those more famous names, perhaps even more so.

Margaret continually gives her time in supporting motorsport and marshals in the North West. Over the many years that she has been involved in the sport, she has spent countless hours ensuring that events have sufficient marshals and that each of those marshals has the tickets and information they need to attend the meeting. Margaret is extremely dedicated to ensuring the welfare of all marshals, and it is a rare occurrence for her not to walk the track and visit each marshal post to speak with people during the day.

Margaret was devastated that she was unable to attend the Motorsport UK event to receive her award on the night due to ill health. However, it was fantastic to see BWRDC Chair and BARC NW Secretary, Helen Allen, make the trip to Oulton Park to surprise Margaret by presenting her with the award in front of over 150 marshals at BMMC NW’s training weekend. Margaret was met with a standing ovation which lasted several minutes and clearly moved her to shed a tear or two.

The Lord Wakefield Trophy was presented to the Women’s Automobile Sports Association in 1920, as their premier award for two annual trials, although other events were taken into account, such as finishing in the Monte or performances in Hillclimbs. During the war, it remained in the hands of the last winner, Mrs H Wood, until 1973, when she presented it to the BWRDC. The Trophy is awarded to a woman for outstanding contributions to motorsport. Margaret is in exalted company with many familiar names adorning the trophy’s base.

Margaret is no stranger to silverware and has been presented with a number of trophies over the years, most recently winning the Barrie Williams Award in 2021. Margaret is an extremely worthy winner of this latest award, quite possibly one of the finest trophies in UK Motorsport, and the whole of the region is honoured to have her as Chief Marshal and a dedicated member of the motorsport community.

Photographs courtesy of Shirley Woodall and Philip Rainford of PS Images Facebook | Instagram