Sir William Lyons Award 2012 entry - part one: interview with Louise Goodman.

 I'm putting my entries for this year's Sir William Lyons Award so they don't just sit dormat on my computer. If you do have any feedback that would be fantastic. Otherwise, enjoy the pieces. Thank you to Louise again for being so friendly and for all of the help!

PART 1 a) Find a figure closely involved in motorsport and interview them on the topic of your choice.

  

 Louise Goodman is well-known in the motorsport world having fronted ITV's coverage of both Formula One and more recently the British Touring Car Championship. However, it's relativity unknown that she was previously the head of communications for Jordan – where she received that offer which would turn her into a TV personality. Following a chance encounter in the media centre at Snetterton, I was lucky enough to secure an interview with the chirpy presenter.

'When you're working in a specific team you're very much focused on how that team is doing and how you're performing in the race and the season, what's going on within your team and how things relate to your team'. She then pauses to reflect, 'You're just very focused on that. Whereas when you're working as a journalist clearly you've got to be aware of what's going on everywhere, so it's a much wider focus as you've got to be aware of what's happening up and down the paddock'. Louise explained that working with Jordan had its benefits when she became part of ITV's team, 'It was mostly down to experience; and knowing your way around the circuit so you could second-guess where the drivers were and which entrance into the paddock they were likely to come back through'.

Goodman admits to having outside help though as it wasn't all about her knowing a circuit by heart: 'I always used to have help from the producers who would be able to walk about a bit more, so they'd walk outside the paddock and let me know in advance when the drivers were coming and which way he was coming from so I could try and sneakily head off in that direction without the rest of the media following behind me'. 

Louise is also known for her talent behind the wheel, having finished third in class in the 1999 Network Q Rally alongside fellow motorsport journalist Maurice Hamilton. One of the most memorable moments of her career on the circuit was when she was hit by Nigel Mansell whist being driven by Fernando Alonso in the first ever race for two seater Formula One cars at Donington Park, 'If anybody threw me a set of keys and told me to have a go, I'd jump into most things, but I don't have any massive burning ambition to compete on the Paris-Dakar [rally] or anything like that'.

She most recently competed in a Mini race at Knockhil as part of the BTCC support programme, but says that she doesn't take the occasional race too seriously, 'I've thoroughly enjoyed all the motorsport I've done but I tend to be an ad-hock competitor rather than a die-hard competitor'.