---

Marconi Grand Prix To Recognize 100th Anniversary of First International Auto Race    

13 June 2000

Marconi Grand Prix To Recognize 100th Anniversary of First International Auto Race    

     Speed and Communication Still Fascinates the World as It Did in 1900

    CLEVELAND, June 12 The Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland
will hold a special place in the world of auto racing in July as Marconi plc,
sponsor of the event, announced today that it will recognize the 100th
anniversary of the first international automobile competition, which was held
in France in 1900.
        A participant in that race, Alexander G. Winton, a Cleveland auto
manufacturer, became the first American to compete internationally when he
entered his eight-horse powered machine in a race between Paris and Lyon.  The
site of the former Winton factory is only a few miles from Burke Lakefront
Airport where the Marconi Grand Prix will be held July 2.
    A hundred years ago destiny linked Winton with Guglielmo Marconi, inventor
of the wireless, whose revolutionary discovery had dramatic impact on the
coverage of sporting events.  No business has relied upon speed and
communication more than the media, which linked Winton and Marconi in 1899
through a relationship with the New York Herald.
    "The world was fascinated with speed and communications at the turn of the
century," said Michael J. Donovan, chief executive officer of Marconi Systems
and Marconi Capital. "And today we retain that fascination. We want to source,
manage and communicate information faster."
    Donovan, a former Formula Three race driver and three-time national
champion in the United Kingdom, will present a ceremonial checkered flag to
descendents of the Winton family and the Crawford Auto Museum, which houses a
collection of Winton automobiles, in recognition of the event.
    In the past century racing has been one of technology's proving grounds
and while Winton represented speed a century ago, Guglielmo Marconi, who
created Marconi plc, now a global communications and IT company, symbolized
the birth of a new era of communication with the invention of wireless.
    "Technology has improved the way the world lives and we at Marconi thought
the Grand Prix an appropriate moment to reflect upon that progress," said
Donovan.
    That reflection is upon the year 1899 when William Gordon Bennett, the
owner of the New York Herald and the Paris Herald, hired Marconi to come from
England to the United States to cover the America's Cup in the first use of
wireless at a major sporting event.
    At about the same time, one of Bennett's reporters presented Winton with a
challenge to compete in a race that was to be sponsored by The New York Herald
in France the next summer.
    The race was held on June 14, 1900 on a 351 mile course between Paris and
Lyon.  Almost from the outset Winton was handicapped by a damaged steering
mechanism and was unable to finish the race which was won by a French auto,
one of only two vehicles to finish in the eight car competition.
    Today automobile historians hail the race as the basis for the great Grand
Prix tradition that marked the development of international auto racing.
    Marconi plc is a global communications and IT company with 45,000
employees worldwide and sales in over 100 countries.  It supplies advanced
communications solutions and the key technologies and services for the
Internet.  Marconi plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol
MNI.