RACE OF REMEMBRANCE REVS BACK INTO LIFE AT ANGLESEY THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, some of the best and brightest in UK club motorsport makes its way to Anglesey Circuit on the coast of North Wales for the exceptional Race of Remembrance race event, created by Mission Motorsport as a special meeting that takes place over the course of Remembrance Sunday weekend.

Mission Motorsport helps numerous ex-servicemen and servicewomen retain and find careers in both the motorsport and automotive industries and being recognised as The Forces’ Motorsport Charity, their dedicated career managers have helped more than 200 service leavers, be they wounded, injured or sick, back into employment, with over 2000 veterans in total having received help to find work again. The Race of Remembrance is a special event that combines a three-part race with several other fun and enjoyable activities, all centred around the special commemorative service that takes place every year to remember the fallen heroes that gave their lives in conflict over the years.

This year’s entry is packed with a full field of 50 teams entered for the very first time, with many drivers keen to take part again after the 2020 edition of the event was forced to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are no less than seven classes competing on the grid, with a wide variety of clubman-level race cars across the board amongst the entry. Class A has been split into two, with one part accommodating cars that are compete in the C1 Racing Club endurance championship, as no less than eight are due to take the start including the Mission Motorsport backed car to be driven by Guy Dungworth, Ian Boulton, Ben Norfolk and Mark Layton. The rest of the runners in this class have been sectioned off into those that are running cars in BRSCC City Car Cup specification, with the Bliss siblings Stuart and Richard sharing with Andrew Dyer in their Toyota Aygo, while Bad Obsession Motorsport’s Richard Brunning is reunited with the Citroen C1 he helped to build and race in 2020 where he took a class win at Silverstone in the Clubsport Trophy race. He will certainly hope it’s a successful trip down memory lane.

Class B is mostly the domain of the Mazda MX-5 and the MINI Cooper, with a handful of drivers here recognisable from BRSCC Mazda MX-5 series. Steve Foden, Adam Craig and Brian Chandler make up The Mazda Maestros in a Mk1, as so Clive and Neil Chisnall, Matt Pickford and Kevin Silvain in the Numbers Racing entry, while other Mazda teams come from Peaky Blinders and Jaffacake Racing. TrackScotland have a pair of R50 MINIs on the grid alongside Strongbroo Racing with Howe Motorsport, while the class is completed by NJM Racing’s Ford Fiesta.

More Mazda MX-5s, this time of the Mk3 variety, dominate Class C with no less than four in the class along with another solitary Mk1 for Ploughing Ahead. Paul Sheard Autosport have a four driver line up in their car, whilst George Grant and Nick Rutter make up the Clapham North entry and watch out for Nick Dougill, John Munro and Bradley Philpot in the Traxion with TWP Racing 1 entry. That car has been successful in club level endurance racing over the past couple of years and definitely starts as favourite to win the class and do well overall if they run trouble free. The Puretrack.co.uk Racing Renault Clio 197 featuring Sarah Dennis and ST-XR Challenge racer Jason Hennefer, and the RKC Motorsport Honda Civic Type R will also be ones to watch.

Class D is where you find the most populated class and the fastest cars in the field, with standout favourite for both class and overall honours certainly due to be Rob Boston and Peter Mansfield in their rapid little Lotus Elise. Another car that should definitely be at the sharp end is the Lodge Sports Racing Porsche Cayman, which features amongst its driving strength the five-time BMW Compact Cup champion Steven Dailly, Steve Cheetham and Colin Gillespie. The rest of the class is a sea of more Lotus Elises, Honda Civic Type Rs and a mass of Caterhams that usually compete year on year with plenty of pace. One of them is the factory-supported PaddlUp with Lovecars entry featuring Caterham Academy title contender Freddie Chiddicks and Lovecars presenter Paul Woodman, who has also just graduated from his first season of racing in the same Academy group as Freddie. There are no less than five Caterhams, all of 270R specification, which feature a wide range of talented drivers regularly seen competing in the Caterham Motorsport paddock. And one dark horse in this class certainly must be the BS Motorsport entered Mazda MX-5 Mk1, which Mazda racing expert Ben Short teaming up with Ben Hancy and Alec Livesley in a bid to upset some of the expected frontrunners. Also in this class are three incredible Morgans, including a Mission Motorsport entered car for Lionel O’Connor, Linda Noble, Steve Binns and John Hogan, plus another from Morgan Motor Company themselves with a factory effort, plus Ian Payne and Paul Voakes in their PT Motorsport example.

Class E, or as some are dubbing it “the BMW Class”, has seven BMW 116is all built and run to 116 Trophy specification, with many of the cars here entered by various divisions of the armed forced, including the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy Royal Marines and the Royal Engineers. CSC Racing also have two cars in their line-up for the event, plus sportscar and endurance racing ace Martin Short also has a 116 to share with son Morgan, Stuart Ratcliffe and Craig Denman.

The final Class in the field is Class R, or the Relay class for teams comprising of more than one car. All three groups of cars here are once again Caterham 270Rs, with more recognisable Caterham Motorsport racing alumni here including Harry Eyre, Fraser Riddington, Paul Hearnden, Daryl Cresswell and Harry Senior across the trio of squads.

For the first time ever at Race of Remembrance, there will also be a support race prior to the main event, with the BRSCC’s ever popular Clubsport Trophy making a special final appearance of 2021. An impressive field of 28 cars will be set to line up for the 45-minute pit-stop mini-endurance race, with another eclectic mix of cars typically seen in Clubsport races lining up on the grid for this one. Cars to watch here will certainly be the Caterhams of Tom Cockerill and Chris Skillicorn in Class A, Liam Crilly’s Class B BMW Z4 that appeared at Croft in May, Brian Chandler doing double duty and this time in a Mk3 MX-5, Connor and Alek Modro’s Ford Focus, the VW Golfs and Luke Handley and Mark Jones, former TVR Tuscan racer Chris Maries in his Honda Civic Type R and Paul Smith’s Lotus Elise. They will be amongst a mass of Mazda MX5s, more Civics, Renault Clios and Ford Fiestas as they do battle to provide the entertainment ahead of the main event!

Scott Woodwiss