Editorial Staff and Contributors

Editorial Staff

Nigel Roebuck

Editor-in-chief

It’s been Formula 1 all the way for Nigel – he started covering the sport in 1971. In the mid-1970s he worked for Graham Hill’s Embassy F1 team, before joining Autosport for whom he has written over 400 Grand Prix reports. Nigel joined Motor Sport full-time on Januray 1 2008. As well as reporting on F1 for national newspapers, he has written 19 books on motor racing. His insightful writing and candid interviews with the great names in racing have made him one of the recognised authorities on F1.

Damien Smith

Editor

This is Damien’s second spell as editor of Motor Sport, following his short stint (just nine issues!) in 2005. He has returned to the magazine after two years as editor-in-chief of Autosport, a magazine he first joined in 1996. During his time on the weekly, Damien covered everything from club racing to Formula 1, via Formula 3000 and sports car racing. He is also one of the two Trombonists on the editorial team.

Gordon Cruickshank

Deputy editor

Bravely ignoring his degree in industrial design after discovering night rallies in a Renault 8, GC joined Motor Sport by accident, in the Teesdale days around 1982 when Jenks and WB were office regulars and Mr Tee ruled with a rod of cardboard. He took part in some of the early historic rallies, winning one of the Pirelli Marathons, and regularly runs his Mk2 Jaguar in road events. He is the longest-lasting MS staffer after Bill Boddy and has only another 45 years to go to match him.

Bill Boddy MBE

Founding editor

If you have been one of our readers for any time at all, look away now. However, for new recruits… WB’s first article in Motor Sport was in 1930 – and that’s no misprint. He took over running the magazine before WWII and remained editor until the 1980s, making it crucial reading for the car and racing world. A legend in veteran and vintage circles, WB is the author of many books as well as the nonpareil authority on Brooklands, and still loves motor racing.

Rob Widdows

Features editor

Rob was brought up on racing, being taken to Goodwood as a small child and devouring his father’s copies of Motor Sport. During a career in newspaper, radio and TV journalism he created the ‘Track Torque’ motorsport show on radio and was Indycar commentator for Eurosport before co-founding the Festival of Speed and Revival events. He was marketing director of the Goodwood Road Racing Company.

Damon Cogman

Art editor

A fondness for ’shapes and colours’ plus a childhood spent at windswept racing circuits means art editor Damon was always destined to end up working at Motor Sport one day. An apprenticeship on magazines as diverse as PlayStation World and Practical Photography means he brings a fresh perspective to the established world of Motor Sport magazine. His favourite part of designing the pages you see every month, is when he has to sift through old photos of mid-sixties sports cars.

Gillian Bell

Chief sub-editor

Gillian began working for her local group of newspapers in 1994, starting as a junior reporter and working up to become news editor before training as a layout sub-editor. During this time she developed an interest in motor sport and joined Autosport as a sub-editor in mid-2000. She spent seven years at the magazine, becoming chief sub-editor and then managing editor and also reporting on the British Rally Championship. Gillian joined Motor Sport as chief sub-editor last December.

Louisa Skipper

Marketing manager/editorial assistant

Louisa graduated from London Guildhall University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and audio-visual production. She previously worked in television production at advertising agencies J. Walter Thompson and M&C Saatchi and joined the editorial team at Motor Sport in January 2007. As well as being the marketing manager she is responsible for the content in the Desirables and Auctions pages.

Ed Foster

Website editor/staff writer

Ed returned from a stint in Milan, working on the Italian version of Autocar, and joined the team in August 2007. After two years of countless scooter accidents and a constant battle against coffee addiction it was a relief for him to start writing in his mother tongue. As well as managing the website, Ed is responsible for writing the Auctions and Desirables pages, the occasional features article and made his TV debut on CNN at the end of last year commenting on the F1 season.

Andrew Frankel

Senior Contributing Writer

After an inglorious stint in the City convinced him that he could handle cars better than he handled money, Andrew joined Autocar many years ago as a junior tester. Since then he has become one of the industry’s senior figures, writing for the national papers as well as the specialist press. When not driving exotics at Goodwood he’s racing anything from Caterhams to Ferraris. Editor of Motor Sport for five years, he now runs our road test section.

Contributors

Adam Cooper

Adam has covered the Formula 1 beat for more than a decade, attending every Grand Prix and becoming one of the most respected journalists in the paddock. He is now responsible for the F1 news stories in Motor Sport.

John Davenport

John competed in his first rally while studying mathematics at Oxford. After college, he worked at Motoring News and then as rallies editor at Autosport. He co-drove professionally for Vic Elford, Ove Andersson, Simo Lampinen, Hannu Mikkola, Sandro Munari, Markku Alèn and Timo Mäkinen, and directed British Leyland’s racing activities for 10 years.

Pascal Dro

Currently editor of the French motorsport magazine Auto Hebdo, Dro started racing karts at the age of 14, moving on to Formula Ford, Caterhams and GTs before competing at Le Mans and Daytona in sports cars. He has a wealth of experience and a continuing love affair with all types of competition machinery.

Paul Fearnley

Having spent much of his formative years soaked and sideways in his father’s 1933 Frazer Nash TT Replica, Paul has long been in thrall to old cars and past – and current – motor racing. He joined Motoring News as junior rally reporter in 1990 and went freelance in 2005, having edited Motoring News, F1 Racing and Motor Sport in the meantime. He lives in New Malden, about a mile from McLaren’s first home.

Colin Goodwin

A lifetime’s passion for engines of all sorts means that as well as always having some interesting machinery in his garage, Goodwin also races a Triumph Trident motorbike and flies a classic aeroplane.

Richard Heseltine

Anyone who knows the entire history of the Deep Sanderson marque has already passed the entrance exam for pontificating about classic cars. That’s why we let him take to the road in a selection of gorgeous machinery to provide an insight to what made them great, or not. Richard is author of numerous books and has been working for and contributing to Motor Sport since 2004.

Keith Howard

Our technical expert’s interest in car technology can be traced directly back to his squandering a significant sum having the suspension of his 1967 Lotus Elan S3 S/E messed up by a ‘professional’. So he taught himself about suspension design, aerodynamics, tyre behaviour, etc, and in 1991 began writing technical articles for Autocar.

Gordon Kirby

He’s been there and seen it all, but GK’s finger is still very much on the pulse of modern US racing. After over 30 years as the American editor of Autosport, he remains one of the most outspoken and authoritative voices on the US scene. Gordon is now Motor Sport’s US editor and monthly columnist, shedding light on everything that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic.

Paul Lawrence

Here is a man who goes racing every weekend from March to October. Paul’s passion for the sport goes back to when he was a child of the 1960s. He has organised, competed in and marshalled on scores of events, and has written about the subject for 20 years. He is as at home in the paddock at Brands Hatch as in a Welsh forest or at Shelsley Walsh. Paul is also responsible for Motor Sport’s historic racing news.

Doug Nye

The renowned motor racing historian is the author of countless books and articles on the sport, is adviser to the Goodwood organisation and worked for Motor Sport 40 years ago when Bill Boddy was still in the office. He contributes his regular column presenting a sideways look at motorsport from its very earliest days to the latest trends in Formula 1.

Marcus Pye

An accomplished club racer as well as a journalist who has covered motor racing for several decades, Pye’s profound knowledge of race chassis means that he is a consultant to the MSA on authenticating cars for historic racing.

Mat Oxley

As a racer, Mat is an Isle of Man TT winner and lap record holder. As a scribbler, he’s been at it since the late 1980s and has written acclaimed biographies of Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan – plus he’s an award-winning commentator too.

Adam Sweeting

Adam confesses to a “misspent youth chasing pop groups”, but it’s stood him in good stead: he now writes about rock and classical music for the Daily Telegraph. But our new correspondent is no motor racing rookie. He’s profiled the likes of Frank Williams, Bernie Ecclestone and Lewis Hamilton for The Guardian and The Times Magazine.

Simon Taylor

Writer, historian, commentator on television and radio and keen historic racing stalwart, Taylor contributes our ‘Lunch with…’ article each month, in which he invites inspirational and influential figures to sit down for a spot of lunch and a talk.

Tim Tuttle

Tuttle has covered sports for newspapers and magazines since 1966 and has focused on motor racing for the past 26 years. He is a former editor of On Track and has been a Contributing Editor at Road & Track since 2002. He also writes for NASCAR Scene, the USA’s largest weekly racing publication, the Sports Illustrated website and various publications worldwide. Tuttle lives in Greencastle, Indiana.

Gary Watkins

Gary has devoted his adult life to covering the world’s major sports car races, and is one of the most respected journalists in the sport. He was formerly on the staff of Autosport magazine and has been a regular contributor to Motor Sport since the start of this century.

Tony Watson

Our man in Argentina. Tony’s granddad worked for Fiat in the UK and tested Felice Nazzaro’s car at Brooklands in 1908. Tony cut his spectating teeth on the Argentine Temporadas and saw his first GP in 1955, smuggled into the pits by his father. He raced in Formula Renault in the 1970s and started writing about the sport in 1985. He contributes to publications in Europe and the USA as well as Motor Sport, the magazine his father read.