The Neil Tozer Trophy award winners of 2014 are…
The winners of the Neil Tozer Trophy competition, organised between TouringCarTimes and PSP Images have been chosen, and the two winners received their trophies at Brooklands Museum last weekend.
The Trophy was set-up by PSP Images and TouringCarTimes, in memory of our colleague Neil Tozer, a photographer who had worked with us for the past four years, who passed away suddenly last year just one week after the British Touring Car Championship finale.
The Trophy was set-up this year in coordination with Neil’s family and featured two categories. One for professional photographers and one for amateurs, with a £200 cash prize for the professional category winner and a £150 prize for the amateur winner, which includes a day trackside working with PSP Images in 2015.
The winners were chosen from a vast array of high quality entries across the year by Neil’s family, TouringCarTimes staff and PSP Images owner Peter Still.
The winner of the professional category was Stu Stretton, with his photo of 2014 champion Colin Turkington’s West Surrey Racing BMW 125i M driving in the dark, gloomy conditions ahead of Dave Newsham’s AmD Racing Ford Focus at Brands Hatch (main image).
“I am extremely grateful to the Tozer family for allowing the opportunity to see my photography compete against some of the best photographers in the sport through this competition,” said Stu Stretton.
“Looking at the final four selection from each round I did not expect to be chosen as the winner, with such good quality photos entered by other professional photographers, whose work I often look at for inspiration. To have my photos compete against theirs, and to then be chosen as the winner, was unexpected and really exciting. It makes standing out in the cold rain at Brands Hatch to take that photo feel a lot more worthwhile! It is also good to see such a high talent amongst the amateur category entries.”
In the amateur category, a shot of two-time champion Fabrizio Giovanardi’s Ford Focus seen through the trees, again at Brands Hatch, caught the eye of the judging panel, with Claire Roberts collecting her trophy, the £150 prize and a day with PSP Images as an accredited photographer at a round of the 2015 BTCC.
“I am very flattered to receive this prize, particularly as the standard of the competition was so high,” said Claire, whose work made the shortlist from each round no less than five times. “I enjoyed the added excitement of trying to compose new shots.”
Neil’s mother Patricia, added:
“Congratulations to both Stuart and Claire the worthy winners of the Neil Tozer Memorial Competition and a big thank you to all the other entrants. It was very difficult choosing the final two from so many good and interesting images. Our thanks also go to PSP Images and TouringCarTimes for their help in organising it. Wishing everyone a Happy Xmas and an enjoyable BTCC new year.”
Many thanks to all those that entered the trophy this year. It was really difficult to chose from such a great array of work this year. Thank you very much for participating and hope you’ll congratulate our winners as well as all those took part.
