The British Motor Museum has been selected as one of three finalists in the Collection category in this year’s Royal Automobile Club Historic Awards. The annual Awards recognise outstanding achievements within the British historic motoring and motorsport world. The judges had an impressive and diverse list of candidates across all 8 categories to scrutinise and will announce the results on 28 January 2021.

The Museum was shortlisted for a number of reasons, namely hosting three exhibitions during a difficult year and through two lockdowns. These included a major exhibition celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Range Rover and “Metro at 40” which celebrated one of Britain’s best-selling small cars. The exhibition, which went live on 9 September, is free to view from the Museum’s website and gives everyone the chance to celebrate this iconic car’s special birthday.

In October the Museum opened a new exhibition from the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (JDHT). “When Jaguar Bought Daimler” tells the story of when Jaguar bought the Daimler Company from BSA in 1960. The Museum has also remained very active online throughout this unprecedented year with its #historybeginsathome social posts and a lively blog. On 13 October the Museum also held its first ‘Gaydon Gathering’, an informal socially-distanced evening for enthusiasts and their classics, with the opportunity to see the Museum's collection in action.

Stephen Laing, Head of Collections at the British Motor Museum said “Despite the challenges of the past few months, we know that museums like ours are an important part of the community. When the Museum has been allowed to open, we have tried to maintain as much of the normal experience in the safest possible environment for our visitors. When we have had to close, our superb team has found creative ways to keep in touch with our visitors. From fun at home activities for families, updates from the archive, to our first online exhibition celebrating the Metro's 40th birthday, we've really enjoyed the feedback from the public. We have loved hearing everyone’s Metro memories, proving that the much-maligned little car really did help transport a nation through their daily lives and still has a faithful following today. Being a finalist in the Collections category is a great testimony and recognition of the hard work the entire team undertakes”.

Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club said, “There has never been a better time to be rewarding excellence and achievement in what has been an extraordinary year. From keeping businesses active to producing events when all the odds were stacked against the organisers showed such determination. There was also an impressive line-up of online activities within the entries, which just reinforced how resilient and innovative the industry has been in keeping the wheels turning. The standard of entries this year has been overwhelming and the judges, who I’d like to thank, had a tough time honing them down to the finalists”.

For more information about the Awards please visit www.royalautomobileclubhistoricawards.co.uk. To find out more about the British Motor Museum please visit www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk. For more information about the exhibitions please visit www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/explore/temporary-exhibitions

GREAT QUALIFIERS FOR ALEIX: SEVENTH PLACE TIME AND THIRD ROW

LORENZO PUTS IN IMPORTANT MILES WITH THE RS-GP

With great qualifiers, foreshadowed by the good performance demonstrated in all the practice sessions, Aleix rode his Aprilia RS-GP to the third row with the seventh best time. Times are extremely close, as they had been throughout the weekend, so it looks like it will be a heated race all the way to the chequered flag. A flag which, if the weather forecast is accurate, should be flying in bright sunlight, decidedly abnormal for this time of year.

The weather conditions didn’t seem to help Lorenzo Savadori at all as he looked for answers to the changes in the setup that were intended to improve his feeling during braking. In any case, he continued to progress and that would have been more evident if a worsening of the track in the final stages of Q1 hadn’t undermined his last flying lap.

ALEIX ESPARGARO'
"I was worried when I saw the rain this morning before FP3, because I knew I could battle to go straight through to Q2. Fortunately, the track started drying off toward the end of the session and I was one of the few who improved - just one tenth, but enough to make it into the top 10. In qualifying things weren’t exactly simple either. With the first tyre, the asphalt was still damp, but fortunately with the second one, I was able to do a good time. Tomorrow I expect to see a lot of riders very close to one another. Nobody seems capable of getting away at the front except maybe Franco and Taka. I want to start well and stay with the group. We lose a bit in acceleration, but I think I’ll be able to stay in the game for a good placement."

LORENZO SAVADORI
"Another strange day in terms of weather - not exactly easy conditions. The damp track kept us from pushing to the limit, so I wasn’t able to see how the feeling is with the front during braking and going into turns, which is what we are trying to improve. In Q1, the asphalt got worse just as I was doing a good lap - a pity. Tomorrow the weather will change for the umpteenth time, with sunshine and higher temperatures. My goal is to maintain a consistent pace in the race and to gain as much experience as possible."

Just a few days after the Grand Prix of Aragón, which took place last Sunday in Alcañiz, the MotorLand Aragón race track gets ready to host the MotoGP World Championship once again for its eleventh round of the 2020 campaign.

The National Motorcycle Museum applied for a grant from the above fund which was established by government to “provide funding support to organisations across the heritage ecosystem that were financially sustainable before COVID-19”.

On Saturday 31/10/20 we received an e-mail from the Heritage Lottery Fund (who are partly responsible for administering the scheme) that our application “did not meet the criteria for the programme, and the board has decided not to award a grant through the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage”.

We cannot begin to describe what a bitter blow this news was. We had applied for funding in the under £1 Million category in order to help retain all of our expert team of people, as well as preserving the museum collection of British motorcycles as the largest in the world. These are some of the things that have now been put in jeopardy.  

Readers may be interested to see those organisations who have been considered worthy to receive some of the £1.5 billion of funding support on offer by visiting- www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication/culture-recovery-fund-data 

All the team here at the museum want to thank everyone who has given to our own Covid-19 raffle and appeal since its launch in July. Everyone can be assured that the funds raised so far will go directly towards us reopening the museum for a limited number of days each week sometime early in 2021.

However, we are still a long way short of our £500k target, and this huge setback lends even more importance to our current appeal which includes the chance to win one of the three bikes shown in the image.

For more details of how you can help, visit www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/appeal-raffle/   

Please be advised that in accord with recent government instructions based on the second lockdown, Ace Cafe London will stay open for take-away only, to support and provide service for the key workers and our local community.

Our take-away opening hours:
Monday to Friday from 9am – 2pm
Saturday – Sunday Closed

We anticipate a full reopening date in early December with our regular bike and car meets, when we look forward to welcoming you back again.

For more information please visit our Social Media channels which are updated regularly.

STAY SAFE

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