Ormskirk MotorFest 2012 preparations move up a gear

PREPARATIONS are well under way for a motorsport spectacular later this month - and you're invited to join the action.

With less than three weeks to go before the Ormskirk MotorFest rolls into town in Sunday, August 26, the borough council and organisers Aintree Circuit Club are making final calls for volunteers to act as marshals and for owners of racing machines from the 1950s and 1960s to bring their vehicles to the event.

Councillor Martin Forshaw, the council's portfolio holder for planning and development, said: “We are all getting very excited about this year’s Ormskirk MotorFest. Make sure you put the event’s date in your diary and don’t miss a thoroughly enjoyable event.”

Last year's MotorFest helped Ormskirk enjoy its busiest ever trading day, with more than 10,000 visitors packing into the town centre, and this year the council, Aintree Circuit Club and main sponsors The Belfry Group are determined the event will be even bigger.

Among those who have already offered to help are members of residents' group New Way Tenants and Residents Association, who told Life On Cars that they would be volunteering as marshals to the positive impact the car and bike spectacular has on Ormskirk.

Group member Jane Thompson said: “The MotorFest is an excellent day out and I am in full support.

"This is an excellent event which puts Ormskirk on the map. Members of NWTRA are volunteering to help promote Ormskirk market town."

Organisers Aintree Circuit Club have also launched their new Friends of Ormskirk MotorFest scheme this week, which for a membership cost of £5 gets visitors a collector's badge, a specially-produced event brochure - and the chance to get a ride in one of the event's more exotic entrants around the streets of Ormskirk.

Signed up to appear are supercars and competition motorcycles, including one ridden by the late Joey Dunlop, a former world motorcycling champion. There will also be MG racing and rally cars, Metro 6R4, Group B rally cars and racing motorcycles, and the Santa Pod Raceway Top Fuel Dragster. Some of the vehicles will take part in parade laps around the town, and static displays will be on Moor Street, Aughton Street and Coronation Park.

If you have a competition car you'd like to enter, would like to volunteer as a marshal or would simply like more information about the event, visit the official Ormskirk MotorFest website at www.ormskirkmotorfest.com