Bridgestone e-reporter: record entries, nine finalists announced

Bridgestone, exclusive tyre supplier to the GP2 Series, has today announced the nine selected finalists for the 2008 Bridgestone e-reporter young journalists’ competition. The growing popularity of the competition, for students aged 18-30, has been shown by a 50 per cent increase in entries compared with 2007, entrants also representing a wider range of European countries than ever before.

In 2008, Bridgestone e-reporter celebrates its fifth anniversary and, to mark the beginning of the season, will be taking all nine of this year’s chosen finalists to Barcelona, ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, to be part of the official GP2 Series launch event (taking place on 24 April).

Each of the nine finalists, who have aspirations to be professional journalists, will be given the opportunity to attend and report on a GP2 Series race weekend for the Bridgestone website, www.bridgestone.eu/e-reporter. Bridgestone’s finalists for this season, from across Europe, will be attending the following GP2 events:

Barcelona (26-27 April) Gavin Grace (County Galway, Ireland)

Monte-Carlo (23-24 May) Lorenzo Quolantoni (Geneva, Switzerland)

Valencia (31 May-1 June) Tabatha Valls Halling (Barcelona, Spain)

Magny-Cours (21-22 June) Olivier Cougard (Lille, France)

Silverstone (5-6 July) James Aitcheson (Wiltshire, UK)

Hockenheim (19-20 July) Alan Ng (Bonn, Germany)

Budapest (2-3 August) Guillaume Navarro (Erquy, France)

Spa-Francorchamps (6-7 September) Rutger Wuyts (Ghent, Belgium)

Monza (13-14 September) Tom Drew (London, UK)

Entrants for this year’s Bridgestone e-reporter competition were asked to demonstrate their ability to write both a newsworthy story and topical interview questions. The high standard of entries from students writing in English as their second language was highlighted by the judges, the judging panel including high-profile international journalists.

Gerry Duffy, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Bridgestone Europe, said, “In 2008 we have received the highest number of entries we have ever had for the Bridgestone e-reporter competition. We have also seen a real increase in the number of entries coming from students outside of the UK, particularly from France and Spain, which shows the increasing reputation of the contest within European universities. Bridgestone continues to invest in education and, through the e-reporter programme, provides students with invaluable journalistic experience helping them to build a career for the future. Bridgestone wish the best of luck to all the finalists attending GP2 events through out the season.”

The overall winner of the 2008 Bridgestone e-reporter contest, due to be selected in late September, will continue their work on Bridgestone-backed events and will be offered work experience as part of the competition prize.

Taken from Bridgestone GP2 e-reporter website.