Swindon-based presentation skills trainer, commentator and motorsports enthusiast Chris Dawes is steering his career along a new path by joining the board of Castle Combe Racing Club.
Chris, pictured, runs Open Dawes Training – a company providing CPD (continuing professional development) accredited training in public speaking and presentation skills.
A lifelong lover of the track near Chippenham – he first attended events there as a child, accompanying his father – Chris brings expertise in media, sales and marketing, and training to the board
He is also a professional sports commentator and regularly commentates at the circuit,
“It’s a great honour to be part of the board at the circuit where my love of motorsport started as a five-year-old, in the company of my beloved Dad,” he said.
“My commentating career started there six years ago when I answered an advert for a trainee commentator and I am proud to call it my home circuit.”
Chris now commentates and presents at circuits across the world – including UK venues such as Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Snetterton, and Oulton Park – and provides media training to sportsmen and women, in particular racing drivers. He also trains business people in speaking and presentation skills.
He added: “I have made so many friends at Castle Combe and am absolutely thrilled that I continue to be able to talk on the microphone about some of the most entertaining racing and exciting drivers, at one of the most beautiful and exciting circuits in the country that continues to make so many of us feel right at home.”
Castle Combe Racing Club coordinates racing at the circuit, staging around eight events a year. Chairman Ken Davies said Chris was a great addition to its board.
“He is a professional with a great enthusiasm for motorsport and will be a great asset to the board, so we are delighted he has agreed to take this on,” he said.
The racing season kicks off on Easter Monday with the Howard’s Day event, named in honour of the late Howard Strawford, who rescued the track from oblivion in the 1970s and whose family still owns it.
