‘Write Into Gear’ Shell competition: We Have a Winner

22nd March 2010

Our winner Paul Bond takes up the story…

Like most people, I always enter any competition convinced that I won’t be the lucky winner, so it is a real surprise and a privilege to be sitting here writing up my first week with Auto Express!

So after a hectic four months, where I’ve been sent on press trips to Shell’s HQ in Cheshire, the Ferrari factory in Maranello, and seen the legendary Fiorano test circuit (all covered in snow), the ‘Write into gear’ competition has ended, but my career as a motoring journalist has just begun.

After discovering that my article about Shell and Ferrari’s historic technical partnership had won the contest, I was ecstatic, and I couldn’t wait to get started, and since landing at my desk on Thursday, my introduction to journalism has been fast and furious.

McLaren were launching its new MP4-12C supercar live from Woking, half the road testing team were staging an Audi R8 V10 spyder Vs Stunt plane shoot-out, and the print deadline was looming. It seems that after all the waiting; life in the Auto Express office was going to be anything but dull.

It is hard to believe that it all started back in November 2009, when I stumbled across a tiny ad on a jobs website, asking if I wanted “to be the next Jeremy Clarkson” and (apart from the dress sense) the answer, of course; was yes.

When writing my articles for each stage of the competition, I always tried to write about the exciting details that grabbed my attention. The £40,000 sapphire crystal engine cylinders that Shell use for combustion experiments, or the F1 Clienti division at Maranello, a small room full of over £65m worth of the historic red race cars.

I’ll have to wait a little while before my first road test, but that hasn’t stopped me from writing news stories, meeting the team and enjoying being in a room full of passionate petrol heads just like myself.