NOVEMBER 7, 2008

FIA confirms Craw

Nick Craw, President of the Automobile Competition Committee for the US, has been elected as the new FIA Deputy President for Sport. At its annual meeting in Paris today, the FIA General Assembly, the supreme executive body of the FIA, voted unanimously for Craw™s election.

Craw, who has an MBA from Harvard Business School, was President and CEO of SCCA for 17 years and has been involved in motor sport for over 30 years. As a driver, he raced touring cars as well as single-seat formula cars and was twice IMSA National Champion. Following a two-year stint as Director of the US Peace Corps in the early 1970s, he joined the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), the largest amateur motor sports club in the US, and ran it for 17 years. In this role he was pivotal in organising Formula One races and sanctioning motor racing events throughout the US. Through his role at the SCCA, Craw became a board member of ACCUS, which serves as the interface between the national racing bodies in the US and the FIA. He left the SCCA in 2001 to become Executive Director of US Sailing, the national governing body for sailing. But he always retained his strong links with motor sport and was elected as ACCUS President in 2005.

As well as serving as FIA Deputy President for Sport, Craw will continue to sit on the management committee for the FIA Motor Sport Safety Development Fund. There have been several other changes in the management of the FIA with Mohammed Ben Sulayem ATCUAE (United Arab Emirates), one of Max Mosley's closest allies, becoming a sporting Vice President and Italian Enrico Gelpi of Italy being named as a member of the World Motor Sport Council. Marco Piccinini has been elected an FIA Honorary Deputy President, while Carlos Barbosa, President of ACP (Portugal), has been named as the FIA Representative to the European Commission for the interests of motor sport.