TRIP OUT

R ACE OF REMEMBR ANCE 2022 REMEMBR ANCE 2022

e mist covered mountains of Snowdonia are a majestic backdrop to the home of Mission Motorsport’s Race of Remembrance. e race is an endurance event of twelve hours, that pauses on Sunday morning for a Remembrance Service including the two minute silence at 11 o’clock.

WORDS & PHOTOGR APHY Nigel Bradford RD

or the past two years the race included

FMorgans, initially a privateer team of ClubSports and last year the works team of two CX platformed Plus Fours, all with some drivers drawn form the number of Mission Motorsport benefi ciaries who compete in the race. Sadly this year there were no Morgan cars on the track, but there were still a number of “Morgan People” involved. Among them was Nick Wilson, Morgan Motor Company’s new Chief of Staff , who this year was driving a Citroen C1 having driven a Morgan Plus 4 ClubSport last year. Another Morgan link was the Williams Automobiles Team who had entered one of those other quirky British sports cars with no roof, a rather fetching pink Caterham with an unspeakable nickname. Henry Williams himself was one of the drivers along with racing legend Calum Lockie who only a few days before had been driving the red Morgan Plus 4 SLR in Portugal.

Qualification had gone particularly well for the Williams team and they had qualified on the front row of the grid, second only to a “rather fast Lotus” on pole. W hat strange and unfamiliar excitement was this? Following the Morgans in previous Anglesey races had been all about the taking part, and helping Mission Motorsport beneficiaries as either drivers or support crew. This was all rather different.

This was the 9th Race of Remembrance at Trac Mon, the Anglesey Circuit. The race is the manifest personification of the charity’s trinity of aims; Race, Retrain, and Recover.

Launched at Thruxton Motor Circuit on 1st March 2012 in order to help those affected by military operations by engagement through sport, the charity recognised from the outset the astonishing inspirational and healing potential of sport. Motorsport is unique in that the disabled compete against the able bodied on a level playing field - there is no separate category for disability. Engineering allows us to adapt the vehicle, not the sport, and that leveller is a strong draw that the charity harnesses to help those who may be hard to reach - connecting them with amazing opportunities for second careers, beyond the military.

The Forces’ Motorsport Charity, whose motto is “Race Retrain Recover” is MoD’s competent authority for motor sport as a recovery activity, and is a Royal Foundation (the charitable trust of the Prince and Princess of Wales) and Endeavour Fund supported initiative.

The charity’s dedicated career managers have placed more than 200 Wounded, Injured and Sick service leavers into employment since the inaugural Invictus Games in September 2014. Over 2000 veterans have found work through the charity’s programs.

As a place where land, sea and sky all come so spectacularly together, Trac Mon is probably the perfect location with for this tri-service veterans race; its landscape is stunning, the the sea views with waves breaking on the rocky coast spectacular, and last but not least the sky is often a glorious blue. The site itself was a Royal Artillery training camp and some of the buildings are reassuringly familiar to anyone who has served. Not forgetting that RAF Valley is a close neighbour. The RAF station’s support has proved invaluable over the years, including providing accommodation for Beneficiaries and catering at the circuit. Indeed the combination of living on base, being back among people with similar experiences and having a structured and intense few

days were “just like being back in”. A welcome experience for some who for many reasons have found adjusting to Civvy Street hard.

Strip all the good works back though, and this is a hard endurance race, an unforgiving race that is all too rare in the world of 20 or 30 minute club races of the sort that MOG usually covers. Like the best endurance races it starts in mid afternoon and finishes 24 hours later. But unlike the usual sort of endurance races held in the summer with its 3pm start it has just over an hour of daylight in which to drive before the sun sets over the Irish Sea. It is no wonder that all drivers have to qualify for night running with at least three laps on the dark, along with the usual daylight running.

All cars have to have their race numbers visible in the dark, and along with functional road lighting. Most of the faster cars have strong rally spots fitted and most cars have additional “decorative”lighting. The necklaces of lights racing round the dark track sometimes give away the shape of the car, sometimes not, but they all seem to break the old convention of no Christmas decorations up before Remembrance is over. No one here is complaining though.

The race started well for the Williams team and

shadowing them throughout the evening it becomes clear why endurance racing is particularly suited to former Service People. Of course there is the individual thrill and bravery of the drivers but then there are the pit stops, where the “military’ skills of discipline and drills are so important. Having said that, pit stops must be of at least four minutes and the Williams team achieved their last refuelling and driver change in half that time, with none of them having a Services background. Though Henry was once offered a place at Sandhurst!

Though the race starts and finishes at 3 it is not a twenty four hour race as it has two breaks; one overnight and one for the Remembrance Sunday Service.

Henry ’s two stints at the wheel bracketed the overnight stop, so he raced first in total darkness, and then had to contend with a horribly low bright sun on Sunday morning. But his night drive saw the team in first position for the night stop and then he increased the lead in the morning for Calum to take over and bracket the Remembrance stop where the cars are stopped on the grid.

The pit lane service is as moving an act of remembrance as you will find anywhere in the country. These days the serving personnel change into uniform,

but as has always been the case, veterans just pin their medals to whatever they were wearing and replace their woolly hats with a beret.

The last post and reveille were played by a marshal on her cornet, and a local piper played the Flowers of the Forest on completion of the silence. Among the veterans are those who have served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland, the Balkans and Afghanistan. Some show the signs of injuries, of course many do not. Most are remembering lost comrades, and it is comforting to be stood in a company who know what it was like. No one there is celebrating, all are remembering. As usual the solemn proceedings are brought to an end with Jim Cameron’s cry of “Let’s Go Racing!” and a loud cheer. The pit lane is quickly cleared, drivers get back into their seats and the race resumes, as it started, with a rolling start behind the safety car.

Before long Calum had built a lead of four laps over the second placed car, then disaster struck and the Ford Sigma engine blew a hole in the bottom of its block. Pink Percy’s race was over. Half an hour later as we all sat in the paddock, and emotions had subsided a little Callum suddenly exclaimed, “we’re still tenth!”, we all cheered up some more. Then a second team photograph was taken. Seldom, if ever, has a team photo been taken with all the team and car whilst still in 14th place.

There were still over two hours of racing to go before the checkered flag. I am happy to report that the Royal Navy took a class win against the RAF and Royal Engineers (representing the Army but not actually allowed to call themselves an Army team over some strange branding decision).

Results don’t matter at Race of Remembrance, it is all about being there, being among friends and remembering. There is no other event like it. There is nothing quite like standing on the highest point if the circuit, watching the cars go round and round a wonderfully technical track along with the views of the mountains and the sea. Morgan were not there this year, but no matter. They will be there again next year, “yes, one hundred percent!”. I’ll be there and I hope to see many of you too.