"This is a vital appointment in the MSA's commitment to delivering a 'whole sport' strategy," MSA chief executive Colin Hilton said, "We have invested substantially in Go Motorsport and Let's Go Karting to stimulate participation in the sport and we have successfully established the Elite programmes in race and rally, but a more co-ordinated, holistic approach to the development of the sport can only be beneficial and increase our ability to create sustainable levels of new participants which will feed the talent pool that will ultimately deliver stronger elite representation."
Specifically, the governing body hopes that Reid will be able to embrace the areas of training, funding and representation in order to get the best for, and from, British talent, as well as benchmarking the MSA against other ASNs around the world.
"This is a really exciting challenge and one that I am very much looking forward to," Reid admitted, "In the last three years, I have been able to put my experience to good use in helping the development of a small number of elite rally drivers and co-drivers and we have had some encouraging results.
"But there is a much bigger role to be undertaken to establish a sustainable structure throughout the sport that will create a genuine long-term development programme. We need to widen participation, embrace education, set up accredited qualifications, provide elite driver training and then ensure that we back our best performers to be successful on the world stage.
"I will also be representing the MSA and British motorsport in discussions with manufacturers, sponsors and teams. It's something that the MSA has not been in a position to do before and I very much hope that this will help to create exciting new opportunities for our best drivers."
![Robert Reid [Pic credit: Stobart VK / McKlein]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/283379.jpg)
