David A Davies
editDavid (Dave) Ayerst Davies was born in Brussels Belgium on 21st April 1956, son of Squadron Leader GGA Davies (also known as 'Dave Davies') who was at that time a Royal Air Force attaché working at the British Embassy in Brussels, and Dorothy Davies (nee Marr). Dave spent his first few years in Uccle (Ukkel) a suburb of Brussels. David's paternal grandfather was Lennox Graham Davies, a writer and journalist who worked for Reuters as a war correspondent in WW2, and in the 1930's for Temple Press, contributing many articles to The Motor magazine under the name LG Davies or L Graham Davies. LG Davies was a leading authority on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, although he turned his main attention to aerospace after WW2, contributing to 'The Aeroplane' magazine in the 1940's. Dave's maternal grandfather John Marr was an engineer, responsible for much of the telephone infrastructure of Newcastle, and the surrounding region. David's great uncle Edward Ayerst Davies was a chartered civil engineer who among other things worked on the electrification of a portion of the North Eastern Railway.
From 1969 to 1974, Dave attended Ottershaw School, a boarding school for boys in Surrey, and studied Physics and Electronics at Brunel University in west London. After graduating from Brunel in 1983 he worked at the Gray Laboratory in Northwood Middlesex for the 'Cancer Research Campaign' (CRC).
Dave's love of motor sport began early, with the inevitable influence of his father, grandfather and not least his older brother Geoffrey (Geoff) Davies who had success in international class 1 Kart racing and subsequently Formula Ford 1600, winning the Castle Combe championship 1979 and was Ross & Haines Formula Ford 1600 champion the same year. At boarding school during his brother's karting period, Dave often went to race meetings and began to document Geoff's racing career in photographs. Dave continued his life-long passion for both photography and motor sport in a professional capacity, in parallel with his science and engineering career. In 1995 Dave created a website dedicated to the 24 hours of Le Mans, with the intention of aiding first time visitors to the race. It was originally called 'The unofficial guide to Le Mans' and had the domain name lemans.co.uk but on the request of the Automobile Club de L'Ouest (ACO) he changed the name such that it did not include 'Le Mans' and renamed it 'Club Arnage'. The clubarnage.com website has been continuously operating since 1996 and the Club Arnage web forums, and guide to Le Mans are still essential reading for both Le Mans first timers and long standing race fans. In 1999, the ACO asked Club Arnage to help with the English language version of the official Le Mans website (lemans.org). From 1999 until 2017, the Club Arnage editorial team provided web content during the Le Mans 24 hours. From August 2010 until September 2014 Dave wrote (in English) and translated (from French) for the ACO on a daily basis.
In addition to writing for Club Arnage and the ACO, Dave has been the principal French/English translator for the race programmes of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) since 2012.
Dave was married in 1980 to Susan Hargraves, the daughter of John Hargarves, a union official in the Banking Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU). He has two children (Daniel and Heather) from that marriage. After divorce in 2009 he had a second son (Rowan) in 2011 with actress and singer Rosanne Priest.