Knockhill was honoured and delighted to host its first Royal visitor at the weekend with the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William coming to Knockhill as part of his week-long trip to Scotland. He was given a masterclass in electric racing with Extreme E, the pioneering, purpose-driven series using sport to highlight global climate change issues.
As well as understanding more about the series’ electrification, environment and equality background, the visit provided an opportunity for Prince William to take a look at Extreme E’s hydrogen fuel cell – created in collaboration with British-based AFC Energy – which charges its electric race fleet using zero-emission energy.
Prince William was hosted by Extreme E CEO and Founder Alejandro Agag, a driving force behind the electric motorsport revolution along with members of two of Extreme E’s British teams; George Imafidon, a Junior Engineer on Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team; and driver Catie Munnings, who races for the Andretti United team, who was on hand to show the Prince how to get the best out of the series’ electric race vehicle.
Stuart Gray of Knockhill said “We received an enquiry about hosting Prince William driving an Extreme-E electric rally car about six weeks ago. Since then there have been numerous zoom meetings with Prince William’s representatives, the Extreme-E team and both Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police.
“All news about the visit was embargoed, not even members of staff knew the details of his schedule, and it was a close organising team at Knockhill that delivered his visit in coordination with the Extreme-E team. He loved his visit as shown by his reaction on the day and his social media feeds after he departed. He is a known for his interest in motorsport having Karted as child and is also the prod owner of a Ducati motorcycle. We truly hope that it will not be his only visit to Knockhill.”