2024 RACE OF REMEMBRANCE

On one of the most poignant, significant and special weekends in the British motorsport calendar, the British Racing & Sports Car Club and Mission Motorsport once again join forces for the annual Race of Remembrance at Anglesey Circuit in Wales this weekend.

A special three-part 12 hour endurance race that centres itself around the all-important Remembrance weekend and the Sunday service that honours it, the race pits numerous teams and cars together across this unique endurance test, all to support Mission Motorsport’s great cause to support service leavers and veterans in recovering and retraining for careers in motorsport and automotive sectors.

This year’s entry for the 2024 edition looks to be one of its strongest yet, a fitting accolade given this will be the tenth running of the event as well as Race of Remembrance’s tenth anniversary since it first began in 2014. To see how ROR has progressed to become one of the best loved and most important events of the British motorsport season is something truly special.

Let’s detail who’s contending in each of this year’s classes, starting with the Relay class. Last year it was a squad of Caterhams that went on to take the overall victory, and while the same team of drivers is not present this year, there is one group that will be hoping to emulate them. Across three cars, the six-pack of Paul Hearnden, Daryl Cresswell, Wes Payne, Harry Eyre, Tim Steel and Allan Curtis will hope they can drive their way to victory.

The fastest cars in the field will also come from Class D, with six contenders found here. A pair of Lotus Elises are sure to lead the line with Rob Boston Racing returning again to regain their crown with Rob driving again alongside Peter Mansfield and joined by Ben Brooks and Audi TT Cup Racing star Sam Heading. Jason and David McInulty also return too, hoping to have a better performance after mechanical issues hindered them in 2023. A BMW M3 E46 should also be in the mix from RAF Motorsports driven by Wayne Lewis, Paul Cook and Chris Slator, as should Steve McInulty and Don Henshall in their solo Caterham effort, while the RAF team also put forward an Audi TT with the quartet of Matt Isherwood, Oliver Waind, Alex Smith and Ryan Parkin at the wheel. Also watch for the Mazda MX-5 Mk3 of Morgan and Roger Sparrow, Alex Pink and Nick Maingot too.

Class C is by far the strongest and largest class of this year’s race, with so many potential winning squads in attendance here. Almost half of the class is populated by Mazda MX-5s, the majority, with experienced MX-5 team Paul Sheard Racing entering a pair, along with another car from RAF Motorsports added to their roster. Mission Motorsport wheel out their green machine once more, while a battle between Clapham North/ Rob Boston Racing and Stuart Humphrey Racing will resume after their season long duel for class honours in the BRSCC’s SuperSport Endurance Cup this year. Tequila Racing will also bring their Mk1 to the grid once more.

Elsewhere in the class, Mission Motorsport’s North American counterparts Operation Motorsport make a welcome return to ROR once again, and their duo of Toyota GT86s should serve them well with one car for the US contingent and the other for those from Canada. Also in Class C, the GT86’s brethren the Subaru BRZ also appears here too. This is a special build put together in association with eBay, with all of the parts sourced directly from their auction platform, with a team of ROR beneficiaries both behind the build of the car and also behind the wheel this weekend. Steve Binns, Michael Smith, Lionel O’Connor and Dominic Pearson will get the honour of racing this Subaru, which has also been specially adapted with hand controls. Mission Motorsport also have one of their own GT86s entered once more too, alongside Patron Racing’s BMW 330ci and NJM Racing’s Ford Fiesta. Another special car will be AFCN Motorsport’s Jaguar XF, sporting a special colour scheme courtesy of renowned automotive and motorsport artist PopBangColour.

For Class B, there’s no surprise to see more Mazda MX-5s with Brake Dancer Racing sporting the same six drivers in the Caterham relay team, with this car also sporting SuperSport Endurance Cup mileage too. A collaborations between the Autotest and BC Cars teams sees two regular BRSCC Mazda MX-5 outfits in the same car together including Brian Chandler and Adam Sparrow, while Jaffacake Racing, Peaky Blinders and a second Autotest team car also make up the Mazda contingent here. One of the fan favourites from 2023 was the cheeky little FIAT Panda from D C Lomas Racing Team Pandamonium and that makes a welcome comeback to the ROR grid, with the class completed by a pair of MINI Coopers from TrackScotland making the trip across the border to compete.

Class A is a simple affair with just a sole CityCar Cup spec Citroen C1 contesting the race, and it may find itself racing with the contenders in the C1 Endurance class whilst also bidding to finish trouble free and as high up the order as possible.

Speaking of the C1 Endurance class, there’s a fairly healthy contingent on this occasion with no less than twelve teams present this year. Just about all of them are squads that regularly contest the Silverlake C1 Endurance Series, and the lineup contains a handful of front running teams from that paddock. This includes a four car strong squad from WRC Developments, a pair of C1s from series sponsors Silverlake and Scuderio Pollo Rosso, plus teams from Road & Trax, Flying Felix Racing, Team MKD, Radiation Racing and Dave’s Dodgems. This will certainly be quite the race within a race.

That could also be the same for the BMW 116 Trophy class, which in turn also has a healthy entry of 10 teams in total. This is where you’ll find a few more of the military-represented teams, including the RAF, Royal Engineers and the Royal Navy. There’s also a pair from Anthony Seddon Racing, two from perennial ROR stalwarts Matabooboo Racing, two from the YGDRASIL team, and another from Elsworth BMW/ EIC Motoring. This will be another internal battle within the 12 hours that will certainly be entertaining.

The ROR entry is completed by the sole invitation class Citroen 2CV Hybrid of Nick Roads, Louis Tyson and Nick Crispin, another that will want to enjoy the experience and keep out of trouble

There’s also a superb entry poised for the ROR ClubSport Trophy support race, which is a special edition of the popular 45-minute multi-class pit-stop race series that regularly attracts big grids wherever it goes. Amazingly, it’s no different this weekend as Saturday’s race looks set to feature the maximum of 42 cars taking to the grid ahead of the main event.

Initial favourites to come out on top include former multi-time ClubSport winner Liam Crilly in his BMW Z4, Lloyd and Neil Huggins’ Lotus, Ben Walkingshaw’s VW Scirocco R and Paul Hoggins’ BRSCC Audi TT Cup race car, all of which will be in the top bracket of the field in Class A. The rest of the entry is populated with the usual mix of ClubSport machinery, such as Mazda MX-5s, Renault Clios, more VW Golfs, MINI Coopers and more. One part of the grid to note is the sizeable number of Class E runners, with no fewer than sixteen counted at the time of writing, one of the largest ever seen on a ClubSport Trophy grid. That’s sure to be quite the frantic and busy battle on track across the 45 minutes.

Written by Scott Woodwiss