{"id":29847,"date":"2024-07-25T14:48:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.totalkitcar.com\/?p=29847"},"modified":"2024-07-25T14:48:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:48:39","slug":"the-story-of-the-uk-owned-french-based-winfield-racing-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/the-story-of-the-uk-owned-french-based-winfield-racing-school\/","title":{"rendered":"THE STORY OF THE UK-OWNED FRENCH-BASED WINFIELD RACING SCHOOL"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINFIELD RACING SCHOOL \u2018<\/b><\/strong>\u00c9<\/b><\/strong>COLE DE PILOTAGE WINFIELD\u2019 – STEVE HOLE tells the story<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Established as \u2018Ecole de Pilotage Jim Russell\u2019 by Bill Knight, his business partner and friend, jeweller Arthur Owen and well-known F3 driver, Jim Russell. The business was founded,\u00a0with help from G\u00e9rard \u2018Jabby\u2019\u00a0Crombac,\u00a0at Magny Cours near Nevers, France in 1963.\u00a0Let\u2019s use its correct name \u2018Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours.<\/p>\n

MANY thanks to https:\/\/rewind-media.com\/2022\/02\/21\/mike-knight-lunch-with-champions\/<\/p>\n

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Mike Knight ran the Winfield Racing School operation at Circuit Nevers Many Cours for many years. The school was founded by his father Bill Knight. Photo courtesy of Eli at Rewind Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Knight and Owen had collaborated with Russell on land speed record attempts from the mid-fifties and were very good friends. Knight had sent his eldest son, Mike, to Russell\u2019s race school at Snetterton, which eventually developed into the school at Magny-Cours.<\/p>\n

The name was changed in 1964 to \u2018Ecole de Pilotage Winfield\u2019 when Knight, a Jersey-based land speed record enthusiast, who also owned a kart circuit in Majorca that was also named \u2018Winfield\u2019\u00a0decided to use the \u2018Winfield\u2019 on a corporate basis. Some people have speculated over the years that it was named after a brand of Australian cigarettes. The truth was \u2018Winfield\u2019 was Bill Knight\u2019s mother\u2019s maiden name.<\/p>\n

When the name changed Jim Russell concentrated on his race school in England. Incidentally, Magny-Cours was built in 1960 by land\u00a0owner\/farmer Jean Bernigaud, a\u00a0school friend of Crombac.\u00a0Jean and Mike are said to have got on well.<\/p>\n

Winfield became very popular and was the first race school in France when it opened.<\/p>\n

Bill Knight co-founded Automobiles Martini with Renato \u2018Tico\u2019 Martini in 1965 and unsurprisingly the manufacturer was also based at Magny-Cours and Tico was heavily involved with the running of Winfield. He was their first mechanic before becoming chief instructor.<\/p>\n

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Over 30 future F1 drivers learnt their craft with Winfield including Ren\u00e9 Arnoux. Photo courtesy of Eli at Rewind Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shell Oils sponsored the racing school from formation until the oil crisis of 1973 at which point Elf took over. It was the French lubricant giant who instigated a second branch<\/p>\n

In 1966, Bill stepped away from running Winfield and moved back to Jersey. His son Mike took the helm and ran it until 1973 at which point he moved back to the UK. All was not lost, however, and his brother Richard replaced him. He stayed for ten years until 1983 when (are you keeping up?) Mike, returned.<\/p>\n

During those intervening years he\u2019d co-founded pioneering wheel manufacturer, Dymag with the late designer Max Boxstrom (the world\u2019s first diecast magnesium wheels). Over the course of time, the three Knights had also set up and ran a British branch of Winfield at Goodwood Circuit in West Sussex.<\/p>\n

By 1998, the school had just ceased to be. There were over thirty future F1 drivers who passed through the Winfield Racing School, some illustrious names such as – Jean-Pierre Jarier, Fran\u00e7ois Cevert, Patrick Depailler, Jacques Laffite, Patrick Tambay, Didier Pironi, Ren\u00e9 Arnoux, Alain Prost, Christian Danner, Damon Hill, \u00c9rik Comas, Olivier Panis and Alain Menu.<\/p>\n

The Winfield Racing School (doesn\u2019t the French version sound so much better? \u2018<\/b><\/strong>\u00c9<\/b><\/strong>COLE DE PILOTAGE WINFIELD\u2019<\/b><\/strong>).<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Another batch of pupils at the Winfield Racing School. Photo courtesy of Eli at Rewind Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In March 2015 Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Garcia and Anne-Charlotte R\u00e9my invested and bought the Winfield Racing School brand\u00a0and have built it up once more.\u00a0They are based solely at Paul Ricard (Le Castellet) Circuit. Visit www.winfieldracingschool.com.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINFIELD RACING SCHOOL \u2018\u00c9COLE DE PILOTAGE WINFIELD\u2019 – STEVE HOLE tells the story Established as \u2018Ecole de Pilotage Jim Russell\u2019 by Bill Knight, his business […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkc.grainwork.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}