Breaking news
WRC
Michael Park 'Beef' Trophy - Wales Rally GB
Michael Park, who died in a tragic accident during Wales Rally GB in 2005, is much missed by the entire FIA World Rally Championship community.
Published: Nov 14, 2013, 9:41 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Michael Park 'Beef' Trophy is awarded annually in memory of Michael Park, who died in a tragic accident during Wales Rally GB in 2005 while co-driving for his long-term partner Markko Märtin.
Michael is much missed by the entire FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) community. To perpetuate his memory a group of friends and colleagues - inspired by Vincent Laverne - commissioned the trophy.
Michael Park
Photo by: Marlboro Peugeot Total
The bronze bust was created by French artist François Chevalier and was donated to Michael’s wife, Marie, and children, William and Victoria.
Each season a smaller replica trophy is awarded to a co-driver who has best demonstrated the qualities associated with Michael during his career, taking into account overall performances, attitude, commitment and other actions or achievements.
In 2006 the trophy was first presented to Daniel Elena from Monaco. Since then it has been awarded to Timo Rautiainen (Finland, 2007), Denis Giraudet (France, 2008), Jarmo Lehtinen (Finland, 2009), Phil Mills (Wales, 2010), Ilka Minor (Austria, 2011) and Stéphane Prévot (Belgium, 2012).
The recipient is decided by a jury of Michael’s close colleagues from the WRC community, comprising Paul Turner (Michael Park’s manager), Robert Reid, Vincent Laverne and Mark Wilford. This year there were two nominations from which to choose: Julien Ingrassia (France) and Nicolas Gilsoul (Belgium).
We are pleased to announce that for 2013 Nicolas Gilsoul has been chosen as the eighth winner of the Michael Park ‘Beef’ Trophy.
Gilsoul, 31, partners Thierry Neuville in the Qatar World Rally Team and has been influential in Neuville’s stellar season, which included a run of four consecutive second place finishes. The pair could secure the runners-up position in the FIA World Rally Championship at Wales Rally GB this weekend.
He began his co-driving career in 2000 in the Belgian Rally Championship before moving up to the European Rally Championship in 2004, when he guided Bruno Thiry to third. Gilsoul scored his maiden victory alongside his fellow countryman in the 2006 Rallye des Cardabelles Millau-Aveyron.
He made his FIA World Rally Championship debut in 2007 at Rallye Monte-Carlo and joined forces with rising star Thierry Neuville in 2011. The pair finished third in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, having won both the Tour de Corse and Rallye Sanremo.
They signed up for a full 13-round WRC programme with the Citroen Junior World Rally Team for 2012 before switching to the Qatar squad for 2013. Neuville and Gilsoul have just been announced as the lead pairing for the new Hyundai Motorsport team in 2014.
“Nicolas is relatively inexperienced compared to his colleagues in the major teams. Indeed Wales Rally GB will only be his 28th WRC start, but he has quickly established himself right at the top of the elite group of World Championship co-drivers,” said Turner.
“Like many in the co-driving profession, Nicolas goes about his business in a low profile but highly professional way. He and Thierry have worked hard during 2013 to improve their pace notes, sometimes refusing the chance for rest and refreshments during a mid-leg service to work on bettering their notes for the afternoon stages.
“We feel Michael would see many of his own traits in Nicolas and would support this decision for 2013.
“This year we had two standout candidates and I would also like to pay tribute to Julien Ingrassia. He has enjoyed a marvellous season alongside Sébastien Ogier in Volkswagen Motorsport’s all-conquering team and deciding between Nicolas and Julien was an extremely hard decision,” added Turner.
Nicolas was presented with the trophy in front of invited media and guests at Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team’s reception in the Wales Rally GB service park in Deeside this evening (13 November).
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Ogier edges out Neuville in Wales Rally GB qualifying
Next article Here we go: World Rally Champion Ogier tops qualifying in Wales
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Dec 17, 2024
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC Jan 10, 2020
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Top Stories of 2019, #7: Citroen quits amid WRC shake-up
WRC
WRC Dec 25, 2019
Top Stories of 2019, #7: Citroen quits amid WRC shake-up
Latest news
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
1 h
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
2 h
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 6 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe