THE JUDGES

Sandy Myhre – New Zealand

First woman member of NZ Motoring Writers’ Guild
First woman member and first President, NZ Motorsport Media Association – she has covered motor racing from all the major tracks of the world.
Editor, One Lady Owner (woman’s motoring supplement Herald on Sunday)
Motoring editor Easy Mix 98.3fm
Motorsport correspondent Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport
Motorsport producer The Radio Network (live broadcast)
Award-winning journalist
Former British and current NZ economy driving record-holder
Author – 50 Years on Track (Hodder Moa) Holden (Holden NZ) From Indy to Indy, Scott Dixon (Hodder Moa) The Rat - The Paul Radisich Story (Harper Collins)

Sandy has three sons and has lived most of her life in New Zealand. She spent six months in London in 2007 to research her last book. She returns to the UK in mid 2009 for an extended period.

Caroline Carver – United Kingdom

Caroline’s first novel Blood Junction, won the CWA Debut Dagger Award and was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best mystery books of the year.
Born in the UK, Caroline is half-English half-New Zealand. She has been a travel writer and long–distance rally driver, heading an all-female crew driving London to Saigon and London to Cape Town.

More recently Caroline put 14,000 miles of South America’s toughest rallying roads under her belt. She has been robbed in Russia, chased by the Georgian Mafia who wanted to steal her car, and survived getting lost in the Taklamakan Desert.
Caroline blames her love of adventure on her parents: her mother, Mary Seed, set a land speed record in Australia in 1956 and her father was a jet fighter pilot with the Royal Australian Navy.
Caroline has written another six thrillers and is currently completing her seventh. She lives in Bath, UK.

For more background please go to C.J’s website: www.cjcarver.com

Heléne Griffiths – South Africa

Heléne is married to Wally (38 years) and they have two adult sons and three granddaughters.

Heléne’s motoring career started in the late ‘70s as a rally driver, participating in club and regional events as well as blind-navigators rallies. Gill Findlay navigated for Heléne for many years and together their greatest achievement was winning their class in the Total Economy Run.

For two years Heléne worked as Radio Jacaranda’s motoring and motorsport announcer in Pretoria prior to their relocation to Durban in 1987. Just before Heléne ’retired’ as a rally driver in 1991, her eldest son, Roger, partnered her as her navigator in the annual Total Economy Run.

Once the Griffiths family was settled in Durban Heléne started her own business, Griff’s Graffiti Public Relations and Promotions and worked as a freelance motoring journalist for several publications. In 1993 she started her own community newspaper, the Umhlanga Globe, the first ever ’good news/positive news newspaper’ that incorporated a motoring section. In 2001 Heléne, Wally and their youngest son, Roy, started a stand alone motoring publication, Globe’nGearz, which became the first ’pint size’ full colour A4 motoring newspaper. Four years later, due to the exorbitant printing costs for this unique newspaper, it was incorporated into the Umhlanga Globe. In 2003 the Umhlanga Globe was one of the top 10 ’Best Community Newspapers in the Country’ in the Sanlam Community Newspaper competition and the runners-up in the Promotional Pages category.

Heléne was one of the first female members to join the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists and has been one of the 26 strong jury that select the South African Car of the Year since the second competition, 24 years ago. Because the motoring world is perceived as a male domain, Heléne has, over the years, shared her motoring knowledge with other women, presenting motoring courses, Women’s Motoring Forum, a basic motoring course especially for women.

She is also a public speaker and her topics range from motoring and motor safety to motivational talks and include one entitled ’From wheelchair to businesswoman via motorsport’.

In 2000 Heléne won the Chamber of Business’ Umhlanga Business Personality of the Year.

At the beginning of 2007 Heléne entered another ’male domain’ - her third business - and has joined her eldest son as his partner in a plumbing business, Roger’s Pro Plumbing Services.

In June 2007 Heléne was asked to assist with a motoring website especially for women, www.cars4women.co.za

She was also one of the four judges for the first ever Associated Magazine’s WOW (Women on Wheels supplement) Women Car of the Year competition.

Heléne is very involved in community work, has been her church, St Luke’s Congregational Church’s fete convenor and a lay-preacher for many years.

She is a Past President and founder member of the Umhlanga Women Achievers. Heléne has been the Chairman of the Beautifying Umhlanga Together Association since 2003, and a trustee for the eThekweni Association of Clean Communities (Keep Durban Beautiful).

Last but not least, at the beginning of 2009 Heléne was selected as the only South African evaluator for the 2009 World Women’s Car of the Year.

Regina Chan – Canada

Regina is the founder of AutoNerve Magazine, the first and only professional automotive publication in the Chinese language across Canada.

She has twenty years of experience in the Canadian-Chinese Media industry as Reporter, Editor, Public Relations, Radio program host, Guest host for television program in various magazines, international Chinese newspaper, local multicultural radio station and Television.

Regina Chan won the 2004 Inspiration Entrepreneur of the Year award shortly after the launch of AutoNerve Magazine in 2002.

Ms. Chan is the only Asian female member of Automobile Journalist Association of Canada (AJAC). She is the co–author of “Driving In Canada”, a book for new immigrants to understand the driving condition and the process of obtain driver’s license in Canada. The book was sold in Canada, Hong Kong and China.

Renuka Kirpalani – India

Renuka was editor and host of the CNBC TV 18’s award winning Autoshow since its conception in 2003 until 2007. She shifted over to UTVi in 2008 where she retains the position of editor and host of the Automotive show.

She has Test driven and reviewed every car in the Indian market and has been on the Jury for the Indian car of the Year, World car of the year and for the Autocar Awards which are considered the Oscars of the Indian Industry.

Renuka had a successful career in Motorsport in India from 1988 to 1994, and was National Champion in 1994.She learned about the world of automobiles working with her father who is one of the top tuners in the country.

Jil McIntosh – Canada

I’m a freelance writer and a member of the Automobile Journalists of Canada. My regular outlets include new-car reviews and special-interest articles for The Toronto Star (Wheels section); new-car reviews and news reports for Canadian Driver, where I’m also the Assistant Editor; articles on antique cars for Old Autos Newspaper; and articles in the industry trade magazine Tire News.

But I’m more than just cars: I also write about food and drink, travel, pen collecting, celebrity interviews and pets, among others. My work has appeared in such publications as Harrowsmith Country Life, Pen World, Dogs In Canada, Where New Orleans, Rural Delivery and Writer’s Journal.

Liz Swanton – Australia

Liz Swanton trained as a journalist on Australia’s national daily paper, The Australian, and the now–defunct NSW tabloid, the Daily Mirror.

The skills learned juggling stories for a paper with four editions a day simplified her move into the electronic media, and she went from newspapers to work in radio and TV news and current affairs.

A short spell in magazines (chief sub-editor; features editor) followed, before Swanton went freelance 16 years ago, combining her passion with her profession to write about all things motoring.

Her work on motoring has appeared in publications such as the Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times, MOTOR, Australian Muscle Car and Wheels. Her work in the motorsport world has appeared in Auto Action, Motor Racing Australia, The Great Race (history of the annual Bathurst 1000 race) and RALLY.

She has also provided national radio coverage on the Bathurst race, the Australian Rally Championship and the Australian round of the World Rally Championship (Rally Australia) and has provided PR services to motorsport events such as the East Coast Classic, the Canberra 400 V8 race, the Mt Buller Sprint and the Dutton Rally series.

Swanton currently writes regularly on motorsport for Motor Racing Australia, The Great Race and the V8 Supercar race program. In between motorsport commitments, she writes for a wide range of commercial and private client publications.