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2009 Young? Creative? Chevrolet! competition winner Britt Raes' work on prominent display at WTCC races in Porto

2009-07-07

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Britt Raes, the 22-year-old student of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, Belgium, who won 1st prize in the Visual Arts discipline of the 2009 edition of the Young? Creative? Chevrolet! applied arts contest, saw her work on prominent display this past weekend: As part of her reward for winning 1st place, she was invited to spend two full days with the Chevrolet World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race team and witness her design featured on driver Alain Menu's Chevrolet Cruze at the WTCC races in Porto, Portugal.

On Saturday, Britt was welcomed in the paddock by Alain Menu who introduced her to the team and showed her the car decorated with the livery she had designed.  Britt was then able to watch the qualifying, in which Alain Menu reached 5th place.  In the evening, Alain also took Britt on a hot lap each with the WTCC car and a Corvette.

"This was my first time at a race ever.  The size of the event and the race track were stunning.  I was so excited to see the car with my design for real and not just on paper. What a unique experience!  I really enjoyed meeting Alain and the whole racing team who all made me feel very welcome and also showed great interest in my project.  The hot laps with Alain were great.  I was scared in the Corvette at first, but then I had a blast," Britt said.

At the races on Sunday, Alain unfortunately had a hard time: He was kicked out of race 1 by Augusto Farfus.  The team did manage to get the car back in shape for race two and Alain had been able to get from 21st to 13th place when he was involved in an accident with Franz Engstler and was out.  Overall, however, the Chevrolet team can be satisfied with the result achieved in Porto, with one podium finish by Rob Huff and 15 points in total for the Cruze.

"I was very proud to drive the car with the "Young? Creative? Chevrolet!" design again. I really like this creative project and it certainly would have deserved a podium finish.  Unfortunately, it was not a very good racing weekend for me.  I hope Britt was not too disappointed and enjoyed her weekend with the team all the same," Alain Menu said after the races.

"I was very impressed to see how the mechanics were able to repair the car for race 2.  You could not tell the vehicle had been damaged at all.  Seeing Alain regain 8 places in race two was so exciting.  He really did all he could.  Of course, I was a bit sad about his accidents but this weekend was nevertheless unforgettable," Britt said.

Launched by Chevrolet Europe in 2007, the pan-European "Young? Creative? Chevrolet!" art contest is conducted annually in cooperation with applied arts schools across Europe. It supports upcoming young talent, encouraging students to look at Chevrolet from their own creative perspective. In the competition's 2009 edition, some 530 projects were submitted by 120 schools in 19 European countries in the disciplines of Fashion, Photography, Visual Arts, Video, and Music.

The brief for the Visual Arts discipline had been to design a unique livery for the Chevrolet Cruze WTCC car and on May 29, 2009, an international panel of judges selected Britt's work as the European winner in this discipline. "The graphic reflects the speed. It is an excellent combination of creativity and elegance and offers a very interesting design and interpretation of the logo," the jury said about the project.

"Speed is the key element for racing and winning. With the logos virtually flying off the car, I wanted to express this speed visually in my design. The logo itself is, of course, an important element representing the brand. The work we do in school is usually just on paper and only rarely on a big scale. I am thus very proud my graphic was chosen for the race car," Britt Raes said about her design.


Also see:

One Podium Finish And 15 Points In Total For The Cruze In Porto
Chevrolet WTCC car to dress up for milestone race in Porto

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About the Young? Creative? Chevrolet! contest:

WHAT IT IS

Young? Creative? Chevrolet! is a pan-European contest for students of Applied Arts organized annually by Chevrolet Europe since 2007 in various artistic fields (2009: Fashion, Music, Photography, Video and Visual Arts). With this project, Chevrolet Europe wants to foster creativity and help young artists. Young? Creative? Chevrolet! also aims to strengthen some of the company's core brand values.

HOW IT WORKS

In each participating country, a panel of judges (specialists in arts and others) award three prizes per participating discipline. All 1st prize winners of the national awards automatically participate in the pan-European competition in which an international jury eventually elects the best three projects in each discipline.

PRIZES

In addition to a monetary prize, the European winners are offered a work experiences with professionals in their respective discipline (witness trips).

DEVELOPMENT

The contest has continuously grown from 8 participating countries and 8 schools in 2007 to a total of 19 countries and 120 schools. The 2009 edition yielded a total of 530 projects.

More information: www.youngcreativechevrolet.com