Ilmor handed Goodwood award.

McWilliams accepted the 'Most Impressive Motorcycle' award on behalf of the Ilmor GP team on Sunday evening as the event drew to a wet and windy close. During the ceremony Lord March paid tribute to the enormous efforts that Mario Illien and his team had gone to in designing the MotoGP bike, he also thanked McWilliams for entertaining the crowds once again in his unique style.

Illien has long been an admirer of the Goodwood event and, whilst his team continues to search for the commercial partners needed to mount a MotoGP return, he used the show to get the bike back out in the public eye and keep it in the hearts and minds of the British public - with around 80,000 fans attending each day at the historic festival in Sussex.

"It's an honour to receive the award and more than that I think it's a real acknowledgement of the team's efforts to create such a special machine," said Illien. "The engineering crew at Ilmor are still working hard on continuing with the bikes engine development, as soon as we have secured funding we will be back out on track. At the factory in Brixworth we've been using the dyno to gauge progress and performance but I would really like to get in another track test before the summer is out.

"Jeremy did a great job over the weekend, out of our two riders [McWilliams and Andrew Pitt] he was the natural choice as he has such resonance with the British public - he and the bike were hugely popular. It was great fun and a very well organised event but hopefully next year we will be back racing as well as making public appearances."

Ilmor withdrew from the 2007 MotoGP World Championship - scheduled to be the team's first full season of competition - after just one round, citing financial problems.