The 2022 season has gone by in the blink of an eye and I’m still processing the magnitude of what we’ve achieved.
Our drivers and crew have surpassed every expectation, with podium finishes in three major racing championships.
To see James and Chris crowned overall champions of the Britcar Trophy is just incredible. This is hugely significant in so many ways. We are the only ever all-disabled team to win a national racing championship. Just take a moment to think about the significance of this. Not only have they made history, they’ve done it in what is the first ever year of racing for them both. I could not be more proud.
Just prior to this announcement, we saw Bobby and Aaron compete in the final round of the British GT Championship, taking away a P2 in class overall. I’ve spoken a lot about the major leap we have made in stepping up to British GT and I’m exceptionally impressed with how the drivers and the crew have handled this transition.
Andy and Luke took P3 in class in the British Endurance Championship in what has been a challenging season with some frustrating technical gremlins. It was great to see both Chris and James experience their first taste of GT4 racing in the Aston, and Andy and Luke have been consistently strong throughout.
Our rookies Paul and Tyrone have also done us all proud with their approach to their first season. They’ve learned, they’ve developed and they’ve demonstrated some fantastic talent for racing. I can’t wait to see what they’ll do next year.
Aside from the race track, we’ve been privileged to have welcomed some fantastic new sponsors and supporters on board. As our dreams and ambitions get bigger, so does the budget and infrastructure required so we simply could not operate without them. We remain indebted to you all for your support and belief.
So much of our success is down to the technical excellence we have at the heart of our team. This is orchestrated by our Engineering Director Al Locke, who was nationally recognised in the Institute of Engineering & Technology E&T Awards in November. Al was shortlisted in the ‘Chief Engineer’ category and came away with a highly impressive bronze award. We were also shortlisted in the ‘tech for good’ category. This is such a prestigious endorsement of the technology we have created and of Al’s skill and expertise in enabling true accessibility in our sport.
Thank you once again to everyone who has backed us on this incredible journey this year. Here’s to 2023.
2022 was the team’s most successful season yet. We take a look at the forward steps we’ve taken in the last 12 months.
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Team BRIT Engineering Director, Al Locke has won a prestigious national award, presented by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
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THE PRESENTER’S VIEW
British GT presenter and commentator Bryn Lucas talks about the team, and what he thinks we’re getting right.
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On the 28th October, we welcomed a small group of friends and sponsors to an end of season celebration at the Hilton Garden Inn, Silverstone.
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PLUS:
MEET THE TRUCKIE
Team BRIT rookie driver Paul Fullick set up an incredible response to the RussiaUkraine conflict.
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BACK TO OUR ROOTS AT DAYTONA KARTING Page 20
BTCC LEGEND MEETS TEAM BRIT Page 23
EVER WANTED A TOP GEAR EXPERIENCE? Page 24 OUT AND ABOUT WITH OUR SPONSORS
Page 26 TEAM BRIT HELP PATIENTS ON ROAD TO RECOVERY Page 32
FIVE QUESTIONS WITH RAQUEL ESTEBAN Page 34
Team BRIT Founder
Team BRIT drivers Chris Overend and James Whitley were crowned overall winners of the Britcar Trophy Championship this year. This makes us the first ever all-disabled team to win a national racing series.
The news came a few days after the final races of the season held at Donington Park on Sunday 23rd October.
The pair put in a consistently strong performance all season, despite it being the first ever year of racing for them both. Driving our BMW M240i, which is fitted with our world-leading hand control technology, Chris and James finished with a 53 point lead in their class and a 7 point lead in the overall championship.
At a special ceremony held on Saturday 12 th November, the pair were presented with their championship trophy, alongside a trophy for finishing first in class.
At the event, a trophy was also presented to the team for drivers Andy Tucker and Luke Pound who finished 3rd in class in the British Endurance Championship.
How do two drivers, entirely new to the sport, take away a championship win in their first ever year, driving a car that was completely re-built after being written off and sold at auction?
It’s not easy and it doesn’t happen very often but that’s exactly what Chris and James achieved.
Prior to joining Team BRIT, Chris was a serious sim racer but had never competed for real on the track. James is a Team GB Paralympian skier, but other than taking his own car for track days, he has had no motor racing experience.
Despite this, the pair have delivered a stunning season of racing, taking multiple podium finishes, to end the season as champions.
Chris says: “I found Team BRIT after researching what hand controls were available for my sim racing. I never dreamed that those initial conversations would lead to me getting a place on the team and to winning an overall championship trophy. It just goes to show that nothing is out of reach when you have the right people around you and a total dedication to doing the best you can.
“I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved as a team. None of this would be possible without everyone putting in 100% every race weekend. I’m so grateful for the support of our sponsors, our families and everyone that has come to cheer us on.”
James says: “I’m in shock over how well this first season has gone – we have literally made history. A special thank you to the crew, who are just exceptional – their hard work and quick thinking made it all possible.
“Chris and I have been lucky to have clicked so well as team mates. We share a real passion for racing and both constantly think about how our performance will affect each other and the crew. That’s meant that we’ve thrived from driving alongside each other and pushed on hard to get the best results we could.”
24-year-old James was born without fully formed hands and has undergone more than 30 operations to improve his hand function, many which were carried out before he was five. At the age of six he was also involved in a serious boat accident, which resulted in multiple broken bones, internal bleeding and months in hospital.
By the age of 10 was invited to join the GB Paralympian Ski Team and at thirteen he was promoted to the Senior GB Elite Squad and began skiing in World Cup events. In 2014 at the age of 16 he was ranked number two in the World U18s and was selected to represent Great Britain at the Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Pyeongchang, and most recently in Beijing 2022 where he finished 6th overall in the giant slalom.
He joined Team BRIT at the end of 2021.
39-year-old Chris Overend from Southampton was born with development dysplasia of the hips and spent years from the age of 12 suffering with injuries and pain caused by an undiagnosed problem.
When he was 24, he was skiing in France when he suffered a severe back spasm undoing his boots. When he returned home a surgeon confirmed that during puberty his femoral artery became pinched, causing his left hip and pelvis to become deformed. The top of this femur had rotated 90 degrees from where it should be and his right hip was 30% bigger than it should be and was partially dislocated.
Prior to this, Chris had forged a successful career as a photographer, working with London Fashion Week and travelling the world on commissions for global titles. He eventually gave up the profession after other operations and became a technical instructor of photography at Solent University.
Chris went on to discover wheelchair tennis, in which he received a world ranking. Chris joined the team in August 2021.
In late 2016, we saw one of Team BRIT’s drivers interviewed on TV. Their ambition, passion – and of course the Brit name – resonated strongly with us. A few months later, we launched our multi-year partnership with Team BRIT; not just to provide funding, but also to give our employees the chance to get to know the team and get involved.
The business behind the logo Brit is a global specialty insurance company. We are a leading syndicate of Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest specialist insurance market. Combining technical expertise with industry knowledge, we create bestin-class insurance solutions that help people and businesses face the future and thrive.
Like Team BRIT, our collaborative culture embraces difference. It empowers and enables talented individuals, whatever their background, to deliver outstanding results. We’re committed to growing the skills of every single employee; helping them fulfil their potential in a supportive, respectful and inclusive work environment.
Both our organisations share the passion and pride that go with working as a team towards a common goal. Our partnership with Team BRIT continues to be as exhilarating and rewarding as ever. We look forward to being part of its continued success.
To find out more about us visit: britinsurance.com and Linkedin
Team BRIT Engineering Director, Al Locke, has won a prestigious national award, presented by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Al, who is from Angmering in West Sussex, received the bronze award in the ‘Chief Engineer of the Year’ category at the IET’s Innovation Awards, held in London on Thursday 10th November.
He was nominated in recognition of his work developing and refining our world-leading hand control technology – which allows our disabled drivers to race on equal terms with ablebodied competitors. A combination of pneumatic, electronic and hydraulic technology enables the steering, brakes, clutch, throttle and gears to be controlled seamlessly using hands alone.
Being shortlisted was also acknowledgement of Al’s expertise in managing the technical configuration of four completely different cars, all specially adapted, across the three separate championships.
Al began supporting Team BRIT in 2015, before joining full time in 2018 as a race engineer. He became engineering director in 2020. He was shortlisted alongside engineers from organisations including National Grid and Ericsson.
Team BRIT Founder Dave Player said: “I’m incredibly proud that Al has been recognised amongst such high profile peers in these national awards. Without our hand controls, we wouldn’t be making the progress that we are in ensuring motorsport is truly accessible for disabled people.
Technology is key to this, and our hand controls have been continually developed and refined since the simple set of controls we first developed for karts.
“I couldn’t be happier for Al to be receiving this recognition of his skill and expertise. He is crucial to our operation and thoroughly deserving of this award.”
Locke said: “I feel honoured and quite humbled to have received this award amongst such skilled, successful engineers who are experts in their industries.
“The award ceremony was a true showcase of the power of engineering to make a difference and that’s exactly what we hope to do with our hand controls.
“I find it mind-blowing to see the work we’ve been doing over the past ten years, to enable accessibility in motorsport, recognised in this way. It’s not only testament to the hard work and ingenuity of our team, but also to our wider engineering family, who form vital parts of our development and supply chain.
“We’ve had the best year in our history, with podium finishes across three major championships, but we have so much more to do and tech will be right at the heart of this.”
2022 was Team BRIT’s most successful season yet.
We take a closer look at the season’s results across three different Championships.
2022 saw us compete in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship for the first time.
Drivers Bobby Trundley and Aaron Morgan had the biggest challenge and opportunity of their racing careers ahead of them this year, with a history-making entry in the British GT Championship.
The championship is one of the most hotly contested endurance series in Europe and would see the drivers line up against the highest standard of competitors they’d faced to date, including Le Mans winners.
In April, the season got underway at Oulton Park and saw Aaron and Bobby collect their first class silverware, finishing P2 in the Pro-Am Category.
From then on, the pair grew in confidence, with the crew expertly adapting to the new rules and regulations of the championship, resulting in an incredible overall team performance.
The highlight of the season came at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps where Bobby and Aaron not only won their class, but took away an overall 3rd place finish in the GT4 category.
At the end of the season, the pair finished runners up in the Pro-Am Category – an incredible achievement.
Pre-season training got underway in February with a team trip to the Algarve International Circuit in Portimao. This was the first chance Bobby and Aaron had to get to grips with the team’s brand new McLaren 570S GT4.
2022 saw the inaugural year of the British Endurance Championship, run by Britcar CEO Claire Hedley and her team.
The Team BRIT entry consisted of drivers Andy Tucker and Luke Pound, who both stepped up to GT4 racing in our Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4, following successful seasons in Britcar.
The season began at the home of British motorsport with round 1 at Silverstone and it couldn’t have started better. Luke and Andy delivered a stunning opening performance to finish first in class.
Their performance continued in round 2 at Oulton Park where they secured a P2 in class and took the championship lead.
A season of mixed fortunes continued, with some technical issues and bad luck on track. Luke was unfortunately unable to compete the whole season due to funding challenges, so drivers Chris Overend and James Whitley each took turns at stepping up to partner with Andy in the Aston.
A fantastic year for the team, with quality performances from Andy and our Aston drivers resulted in a P 3 class finish. What a way to end the first year of an exciting new championship.
Also competing in the Britcar Trophy were our rookies, Paul Fullick and Tyrone Mathurin. Both completely new to the sport, the pair set out with buckets of enthusiasm and positivity to learn and grow as a team.
Paul and Tyrone competed in our BMW 118i and the season started for them at Silverstone. Despite starting at the back of the grid, the pair were able to fight their way back to P5.
The rookies were blighted with bad luck for the rest of the championship. The BMW was severely damaged during a test session after the first race, meaning it was June before the pair were back on track in a replacement car.
Sadly, the VW Scirocco they were racing in had technical problems during the race.
In August, it was finally time to get back in the 118 at Donington where Paul and Tee fought hard for a P6 finish. The final races at Donington in October saw them finish P6 and P5 in class. Their final standing was 6th in class –a result to be proud of.
We caught up with British GT Championship presenter and sports commentator Bryn Lucas to find out more about how he sees the team, and what he thinks we’re getting right.
This year, we’ve been contesting our very first British GT Championship season and breaking new ground in the process: drivers Bobby Trundley and Aaron Morgan, competing in our McLaren 570S GT4, are the first all-disabled team in the history of the competition.
We caught up with British GT Championship presenter and sports commentator Bryn Lucas to find out more about how he sees the team, and what he thinks we’re getting right.
First of all, tell us a bit about your role
I started presenting and commentating on motorsport over ten years ago, including events like World and European Rallycross Championships, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival, the Silverstone classic, and even some Brazilian stock car racing!
So, come on then… who do you want to win?
I want every team to succeed, I never want to see any teams suffer or have bad luck. It’s a fierce competition, but when Team BRIT came third overall in Spa, I think every single person in the paddock and in the pitlane, was pleased for them.
They thoroughly deserved their podium place, and that’s when people started to realise the threat they posed I think – and acknowledged that they’ve nailed it on as a team, they don’t require any special treatment.
Where do you see the team headed in the future?
I don’t see any reason at all why they can’t realise their aspirations to race at Le Mans. I hope they stay in British GT, I think continuity year-on-year would be helpful and it’d definitely be nice to have them stick around. Bobby and Aaron are both very, very quick, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how the rest of the team work around their different needs and characters.
Obviously, like so many sports, as you climb up the order of competitions, moving from GT4 to GT3 and then onto GTE for example, you need deeper and deeper pockets, and naturally they’d have to gain more endurance experience, but I’ve absolutely no doubt their drivers are capable of it.
This is my second season presenting the British GT Championship, and it’s a real privilege. Although viewers will of course be aware of what they see on the screen, so much of it happens behind the cameras.
It’s really about building good relationships with the drivers and being a friendly face. I have to speak to them when things are going really well, but also when they aren’t, which I know can be difficult, so it’s about developing that trust, and enabling them to tell their story.
You dropped into our Dunsfold HQ recently – what were your first impressions?
Visiting teams and getting to know them is one of my favourite parts of the job. On one level, my role is simply to tell the story of what happens on the race weekend as best I can: what’s happening, the mood going around, who’s feeling confident, who are favourites, what the challenges are…
In reality, it’s so much more than that. And getting to know teams and drivers is a pleasure in itself. Team BRIT’s is a fascinating story, and being the first alldisabled team is certainly an interesting angle, but when I go and chat to the team, what strikes you first is that it’s ‘just a team’ like any other – and I mean that as a credit and a compliment to them.
They let me have a go at the track with the same hand controls they use for racing, but in a VW Polo rather than a GT4! I’ve known Aaron Morgan for a number of years now, and I think he delighted in taking me on a couple of hot laps in the McLaren to remind me what adrenaline feels like.
With motorsport, there’s almost a danger of progressing too soon, blowing your budget, and finding it difficult to return.
But Team BRIT have everything going for them –there’s no reason to doubt that they can achieve their goals systematically and sustainably: they have the team, structure, sponsorship, and determination – and I wish them the very best of luck.
The driving, the kit, loading and logistics involved in making sure Team BRIT’s four cars, equipment, and technology is where it’s meant to be at any given time in the racing calendar can’t be underestimated. We caught up with our truckie, Rob Willshire, to find out how it’s done.
Motorsport engineer Rob joined Team BRIT earlier this year – and his logistical, mechanical and motorsport expertise have proven invaluable.
“I’ve been in and around motorsport all my life: my dad and my uncle were involved in the sport, and it was something I grew up as a kid surrounded by, I was never far away from karts, cars, bikes, anything with wheels really.
“I was in the military for 12 years between 1976 and 1988 but that passion never left me and I got involved in rallying through the
British Army Motoring Association, which gives members of the Army the chance to take part in motorsport.”
“It wasn’t just rallying that piqued my interest, I was into everything: superkarts, touring cars, Formula One, Formula 3000… I was mechanic to John Cleland when he won the British Touring Car Championship in 1989.”
The early 1990s saw Rob join Formula One teams Tyrell Racing and Jordan Grand Prix, as well as supporting Paul Stewart – Jackie Stewart’s son – in Formula 3000.
He then put his motorsport career on hold for a time, taking up the chance to work for the Government on international aid and relief programmes in the middle of the decade. He remained firm friends with the community, though, and often found himself willingly roped into “co-driving in rallies, some fun
in superkarts, a bit of saloon racing – the motorsport bug never left me.”
In the mid-1990s, Rob and colleagues merged their companies to found RG Racing, now the primary UK agent for data-logging equipment experts Alfano, as well as coaching kart drivers and providing specialist tyre engineering at races.
Rob explains: “Data is so important: the ability to look at all the parameters on your vehicle – wheel speeds, engine temperature, RPM, GPS location, to identify where a driver can improve, spot anything wrong with car, or optimise its set it up for the track and conditions.”
It was in this role that Rob first met Al Locke, Team BRIT’s engineering director. “We got chatting one weekend,” Rob continues, “and I said ‘if you ever need another truckie or a
spare pair of hands, give me a call.’ I didn’t think any more of it, and then in January Al got in touch to ask me about test tracks I’d recommend.
“One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was driving the team’s truck on a 3,000 mile round trip from our HQ in Dunsfold, Surrey, to Portimão in southern Portugal. We took the McLaren 570S GT4 for testing, which now competes in the British GT Championship. It was the first time the car had turned a wheel.
“With different cars competing in different championships, it goes without saying there’s a lot of kit and logistics to sort out. The truck is four metres high, two and a half metres wide, and 18 metres long. It can take three cars and the associated equipment: tyres, wheels, pit change kit and so on. The tractor unit is supplied by our sponsors, DAF, and has a similar horsepower to the team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4… it’s just not quite as quick!”
“My involvement with motorsport isn’t going anywhere – my son designs racetracks for a living – so it’s fair to say it runs in the blood.
“I’m also hugely supportive of those coming into it: I’m a big fan of the
fact you can still open doors without a degree: some of the best team managers work their way to the top from being a weekend warrior.
“I’m hugely enjoying my role with Team BRIT. They’re a great bunch and the way they have gone about things, their approach to inclusivity, is in my mind the very best way to make a difference.
“Enabling drivers with very different disabilities to race, with the cars adapted fairly across the board, I mean who can argue with that? It gives a lot of people the opportunity to get behind the wheel and go toeto-toe with some of the best drivers in the world.”
“The tractor unit is supplied by our sponsors, DAF, and has a similar horsepower to the team’s Aston Martin GT4... it’s just not quite as quick!”
Our racing hand controls were developed from a simple set of controls, designed to be easily installed in karts to enable veterans with leg disabilities or amputations to race.
Karting will therefore always be part of our DNA, and our annual kart races for our sponsors never fail to turn into a day of super competitive, fast-paced fun.
This year, we held two events, hosted by our long-term supporters and partners Daytona Motorsport, where teams of sponsors and colleagues came together for 3 hours of endurance racing.
At each event, teams fight to complete as many laps as possible and also have the chance to try their hand as a team BRIT crew member in the pit stop challenge. Each team records the time it takes them to change the wheel on one of our racing cars.
6TH JULY
26 teams made up of a wide range of our sponsors took to the track in July to compete against our drivers and crew.
Sponsors including CDW, Clerksroom, Orckid, Adrian Flux, Christopher Ward, Karcher, CPL, Carbon Fibre Tubes, Norbar and Worldwide Workplace each fielded drivers for the endurance event.
The first place prize went to Worldwide Workplace. Second in the race were a team from the Britcar Championship and third went to a CPL, personal sponsor of rookie driver Anji SilvaVadgama.
Sponsors of Aaron Morgan and the wider team, CDW, took away the coveted fastest pit stop prize.
21ST SEPTEMBER
Our annual insurance sector karting event welcomes teams from our title sponsor Brit Insurance, alongside teams from their partners and colleagues from across the industry.
17 teams entered this year, including teams consisting of our drivers and crew.
The top three insurance industry teams were as follows:
First place went to Swiss Re, followed by Amwins Global in second and BRIT Insurance in third. Each of the winners were awarded prizes from team sponsor Karcher UK. The Brit Insurance team also took the prize for the fastest pit stop challenge, scooping prizes from team partner Harrison Holgate.
A lucky member of the Omnipay team also took away a Christopher Ward watch as part of the event raffle, which raised £950 for the Matthew Wilson Multiple Myeloma Fund. Matthew is former CEO of Brit Insurance and has been battling an extremely rare form of blood cancer. His foundation works to raise funds to support research into the disease.
Team BRIT Commercial Director Mike Scudamore said: “What fantastic events we held at Daytona Motorsport once again this year. It was great to welcome so many of our friends and sponsors for a day of karting fun. Daytona is where our GT4 driver Bobby Trundley learnt his craft, eventually becoming a 5 x karting champion, and the company is a long[1] term supporter of Bobby and entire team.
“The Team BRIT drivers certainly put our guests through their paces with incredibly competitive races. We were really impressed with the efforts everyone put in, especially with the pit stop challenge which saw some fantastic times being recorded.
“A huge thank you to Brit Insurance for sending along so many colleagues from within the business and the wider sector to our September event, to all our sponsors who supported both opportunities, and to Daytona for being such wonderful hosts. We look forward to welcoming everyone back next year!”
Team BRIT’s roots are firmly in karting. Our team was established as a growth of the charity KartForce, which supports injured military veterans with their rehabilitation and recovery through karting.
ritish Touring Car Championship record holder and TV presenter Jason Plato spent the day with Team BRIT at our Dunsfold HQ. Jason, who is currently competing in BTCC for BTC Racing, has twice been BTCC champion and holds the record for the most overall race wins in the series.
Both Jason and Team BRIT are sponsored by car insurance specialists Adrian Flux, who organised for Jason to spend the day with the team on Thursday 7th July.
He took a tour of the facilities and got to grips with the hand controls on our top of the range Vesaro simulator, before getting out on the iconic Top Gear test track in our Mclaren 570S GT4.
Jason met drivers including Andy Tucker, who this year drove our Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 in the British Endurance Championship, rookie driver Tyrone Mathurin who competed in the Britcar Trophy series, Chris Overend, who drives our BMW M240i in the Britcar Trophy and Bobby Trundley, wo competed in the 2022 British GT Championship.
Jason said: “I really enjoyed working with Team BRIT in association with Adrian Flux to discover the challenges and solutions they have created to assist disabled drivers to compete in the British GT Championship. It was truly inspirational to see what they are doing.
“In all honesty I found the hand controls on the McLaren GT pretty intuitive, but I needed much more conscious cognitive thought to build a new driving rhythm without using my legs.
“The guys and girls that do it for real are amazing. Good luck chasing the dream of racing at Le Mans 24 hr, I have a good feeling you just might achieve it.”
Team BRIT driver Andy Tucker, who sustained serious limb injuries in a motorbike crash and now lives with PTSD and depression said: “I grew up watching Plato in the super tourer era and have followed his career since 1996. He’s the reason I got into motorsport and started karting.
“It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet him and demonstrate our hand controls. Never in my wildest dreams did I picture meeting him, let alone passing on something that I’ve learn to him – someone with racing knowledge far beyond my own. I hope he can join us at a track soon to see us in action.”
We’re incredibly lucky to have our home at the site of the infamous Top Gear Test Track.
Team BRIT HQ is based at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Dunsfold, near Cranleigh and is where countless car-fans have watched Top Gear presenters race around the track, tackling ‘Gambon’ corner and seeing ‘stars in reasonably priced cars’ clock their fastest laps possible.
This iconic location means we’re able to offer our sponsors and partners incredible experiences with our team, visiting our base and enjoying a Top Gear Track Day. Here’s what it involves...
Our unit is full to the brim of everything we need to keep our cars in top shape.
Engineering Director Al Locke and his crew of mechanics are based here full-time, and it’s where they prep and maintain our fleet of four racing cars. They also use the workshop to carry out work on customer cars and to develop and refine our hand controls.
Your day begins with a cuppa and a chat with the crew and a tour of where it all happens.
Any new Team BRIT rookie begins their training off the track on the safety of our simulator. We’re lucky to have two top of the range Vesaro simulators at HQ, fitted with our hand controls. This means that new racing drivers can get to grips with the controls safely, away from a live track, before heading out in the cars.
Our track day guests go through the same process, so receive coaching and instruction on the sim from our drivers.
Next up, its time to don your race suit and helmet for hot laps in our Mclaren 570S GT4.
One of our GT4 drivers will take to the wheel with you safely strapped into the passenger seat for some high speed laps around the Top Gear Track. Note – don’t have too much for lunch before this part!
Finally, it’s time for you to experience the track from the driver seat.
As much as we’d like everyone to have a turn in our McLaren, our guests get their time behind the wheel in our academy car, our VW Polo. One of our drivers joins you throughout, giving you instruction and tips on how to tackle the track.
To help you remember the day forever, we also supply you with go pro footage from your hot laps in the McLaren.
If you’re interested in hosting a track day experience with a difference, contact mike@teambrit.co.uk for dates, prices and further information.
We’ve enjoyed some fantastic events, out and about with our sponsors this year. Each of our partnerships is unique, and we love finding new ways to activate the sponsorship and get the very most for our supporters. Here’s some 2022 highlights.
The Silverstone Classic is an iconic 3-day event held over the August bank holiday weekend.
Our sponsors Adrian Flux attended the event to promote their consumer insurance services and we took along our Mclaren and our drivers to meet their customers and share our story.
The Leyland Trucks factory in Preston is where many of DAF’s trucks are built, including those just like Team BRIT’s very own DAF XG+, that has delivered our cars safely to circuits all over the UK this year.
This August, the first family fun day since the pandemic was held at the site, with over 4000 staff and their families attending. Guests were able to see inside the facility and watch where the trucks are made, whilst also enjoying a wide variety of entertainment. Joining the display of historic trucks were our Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 and BMW M240i. On hand to talk to guests were our truckie, Rob Wilshire and Driver Chris Overend.
In July, GT4 driver Aaron Morgan, went on a tour of the CDW offices with our Mclaren 570S GT4.
Aaron, who works as a solutions specialist for CDW took the McLaren, our simulator and some fellow drivers on tour to CDW offices in Manchester, Peterborough, London and Rugby to tell their teams more about our work.
On the 28th October, we welcomed a small group of friends and sponsors to an end of season celebration at the recently opened Hilton Garden Inn, Silverstone.
The hotel is a formal partner of the team, with HGI branding seen across our fleet of racing cars.
The evening was an opportunity to reflect and celebrate on what has been the most successful year in the team’s history.
Drivers, management, crew and sponsors, came together for a delicious meal, with inputs and presentations from Commercial Director Mike Scudamore, who gave a round-up of each of our championships, followed by a Q&A with our drivers.
Mike explains: “We really couldn’t finish the year without a celebration of the amazing achievements we have accomplished this year. “What our drivers and crew have managed is quite incredible, but these aren’t just our achievements, they’re only
possible with the help, support and belief of our partners and sponsors.
“It was wonderful therefore to welcome everyone to the beautiful Hilton Garden Inn at Silverstone. The hotel team have been hugely supportive so far and hosted us perfectly. Guests enjoyed a fantastic meal and drinks reception and rooms with stunning views over the iconic track.
“I’d like to thank everyone who came along and made the evening so special, and look forward to hosting more team events at the Hilton Garden Inn next year.”
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be slow. We knew we could move fast, so we began speaking with our contacts regularly, finding out what the urgent need was and getting it to them within a week.
We teamed up with other charities and formed a collective of people that we trust, setting up really effective flows of supplies. As the refugee influx slowed in Poland, the need in for aid in-land in both Poland and Ukraine stepped up. Hospitals and food banks were in desperate need of supplies.
We therefore got together with a logistics company that brings goods from Poland to UK and agreed that we would pay for their fuel if they would take our aid back to Poland on their homeward run. That became a really good way of getting bulk loads of aid out there, much more than we could manage with our vans.
We were contacted by someone buying a refrigerated truck who wanted to take frozen goods out to Ukraine but needed a driver. They now let us use it and we can fill it with medical supplies as well as their food, which we drive out to where it’s needed most. Lately, we’ve also taken large quantities of ventilators out to Ukrainian hospitals.
To date, we’ve delivered 24 tonnes of humanitarian aid via van and over 440 tonnes via HGV.
I’ve been so lucky to have received incredible help from Team BRIT. Right from the initial idea, Dave Player was keen to help, instantly lending us a team van for our runs. My fellow driver Chris Overend has also joined me on an aid run, sharing the driving.
Paul Fullick is not only a rookie driver for Team BRIT, a business owner and an all-round workaholic, he’s also the chair and trustee of an incredible charity, set up in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
At the start of the crisis, Paul was asked to join a community meeting with the aim of exploring ways to get supplies to Ukraine. With Paul’s logistics experience, they wanted his advice around transport and driving in Europe.
What started as an aid run of 12 vans, soon became a complex and sophisticated transport and logistics set-up, with Paul and his team now working as ‘Ukraine Sunflower Aid’ and regularly transporting tonnes of crucial supplies to Ukraine and refugee sites in Poland.
Paul explains: “In our first run, we took 12 vans out full of crucial supplies.
We took everything from blankets, nappies and toothpaste to canned foods and clothing, and delivered it to an incredible organisation in Poland that then sorted donations to help the thousands of migrants transiting into the country from Ukraine and onward across Europe. It was breath-taking to witness what they were managing to achieve.
As more money was coming in and the scale of what we were doing increased, we realised we should become a charity, so Ukraine Sunflower Aid was formed, and I became the chair and a trustee. A great team of people gave up their time to help with admin, accounts, fundraising and logistics.
As we planned each trip, we learnt more, and we realised that the team in Poland had a problem with people donating things they didn’t actually need. Large organisations could get them what they asked for, but it would
My sponsors support me in everything I do, not just my driving for the team. I asked my friends and sponsors at QAV Global for the loan of a van. They didn’t just say yes, they said yes –but they’ll also pay for the fuel, the ferry crossings, the tolls, and they’ll provider a driver!
My sponsors Carbon Fibre Tubes didn’t have a van, so they supplied a person! My brother and their chief engineer who joined me on aid runs.
If anyone would like to help us in our continued efforts, it would be wonderful to receive financial donations via our Just Giving page. This then helps us gather and transport the right supplies at the right time. We set out with the goal of raising a few thousand pounds and sending over one van. We’ve now raised more than £80,000 and it keeps coming. It’s amazing what you can do as a team.”
Odrivers visited two NHS hospitals over the summer to give recovering patients a taste of life in the fast lane.
Patients with spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire and Salisbury Hospital in Wiltshire have experienced what it’s like to compete as a disabled racing driver at the very peak of motorsport, after Team BRIT paid them visits in recent months.
In July, drivers Paul Fullick and Chris Overend visited Stoke Mandeville with our top-of-the-range racing simulator, to give patients a taste of racing. Paul is a lower leg amputee following a motorbike crash, and Chris is a wheelchair user as a result of development dysplasia of the hips.
And a couple of months later, drivers Steve Crompton and Tyrone Mathurin dropped in on patients in Salisbury Hospital to do the same. Steve is a former patient at the hospital having suffered a spinal injury following a car crash, and Tyrone has limited use of one side of his body after a motorbike accident.
The state-of-the-art simulators are equipped with our advanced hand controls and give users the chance to try out the technology on sim-versions of iconic UK racing circuits. The drivers took the opportunity to show patients how to use the controls, as well as to share their own experiences of recovery and racing with the team.
One of the Stoke Mandeville patients who took to the track in the simulator was Cedric Bloch, who has a t4a complete spinal injury, meaning he has no feeling from the chest down and uses a manual wheelchair. Cedric’s arms and hands remain fully functioning, so he was able to use the hand controls pioneered by our team.
Cedric said: “The race simulator from Team BRIT was breath-taking. For 30 minutes, all the pain of being in a wheelchair went away.
The hand controls were game changing, allowing patients with spinal disabilities to use the sim. The true beauty was entering a ‘flow’ state and full immersion into the game. Team BRIT’s racers and coaches were true advocates for disabilities in sport and a great inspiration to life after being discharged from hospital.”
Team BRIT driver Paul Fullick said: “It was a real pleasure to meet the patients at Stoke Mandeville and tell them about our team. Many of our drivers, including me, have spent time in rehabilitation units and you often ponder what kinds of activities will be open to you with a disability.”
“We want to show anyone with a disability that so much is possible with the right support. I hope that
the patients who tried out our hand controls enjoyed the experience and were inspired to try something new. We’d love to welcome them to a racetrack to see us in action soon.”
At Salisbury Hospital, the team were welcomed by spinal unit physiotherapist Rebecca Hobbs, who said: “A huge thanks to everyone at Team BRIT for visiting. Patients have been telling me how much they loved it and one of them said it was their ‘favourite day in four months’ which is pretty amazing feedback.
“It was so nice to see them enjoying it so much and doing something really different. It definitely opened their eyes to what is possible now.”
Which person, or experience in life, gave you your first taste for motorsport?
In the early stages of my life, I’d say a combination of both my grandads and my dad. One of them was a carpenter and the other one was a mechanic, so there were always tools around and things to play with and touch in that sense. So I guess that awakened something inside of me to choose engineering over other careers, but I think the real deal arrived when I actually started university. That is where I met people and started going to the local track to events and races (classics most of the time), joined the university Formula Student team and I realised it was something that I wanted to pursue professionally.
How long have you been part of Team BRIT, and what made you want to get involved?
I’ve been part of the team for almost two years now. When I moved to the UK, I started working at a damper’s manufacturing workshop, and one of my colleagues was friends with Al. When he told me about the team, its hand control technology, and that they might be interested in getting some help for some race weekends I immediately said yes, because it seemed like the perfect first step into the motorsport industry. It certainly was, because it ended up turning into a fulltime job and I couldn’t be more grateful.
We’re very proud of our pioneering technology with hand controls, but what other considerations of the cars’ set up are required for people with disabilities?
I’d say one of the main challenges is the ease of access for the driver to get in and out of the car. We’ve seen this season how critical it is for the pitstop , for us to safely and quickly get a driver in a wheelchair in and out of the car. It brings a lot more challenges than an able-bodied driver because there’s more to get in the way of the rest of the crew involved in that pitstop. It’s very important to have it practiced and get it right every single time to avoid disadvantages.
Sometimes placement of the hand control systems can be a tricky due to space restraints, the additional equipment that the system carries needs to be strategically placed so it’s easy to remove in case of issues, and so it doesn’t block the access to any other components of the car, which is never easy.
Some other important things to consider are button placements. For example, if one of the drivers has a paralysis in the left-hand side of their bodies, placing the radio button on the left hand side of the steering wheel will require them to let go of the wheel to reply to the engineer’s message, and that can lead to an accident on track.
We’re competing across very different championships – what are some of the key differences from a purely practical point of view?
The regulations for each championship are very different from one another. But from our point of view, the equipment we bring to each round is similar for all the cars and our garage setting up gear (boards, toolboxes, etc) is always the same for every championship.
British GT regs are a lot stricter than other championships because it’s a higher level of racing but slowly other UK championships are picking up on certain things to match those regs.
I’d say the main difference from British GT to the other championships is the crew equipment and the fact that we need to be wearing fireproofs AND helmets every time we leave the garage to the pitlane. We also need to use tyre ovens to heat up tyres before any session. The McLaren has centre nuts, which means that for those rounds we need F1-style guns and pit equipment.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
When I was doing my exams to access uni back in Spain, and I didn’t get in the degree I wanted in the first place, it was very disappointing. However, my parents said that maybe it was not my “destiny” to follow that degree and that the one I chose was probably what I was meant to do in life. I can’t say that’s advice per se, and at that point it really didn’t feel like they were right, but I guess where I am now is proof enough that they were.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a family that since being a kid, has always encouraged me and my sister to be whatever we want to be and support whichever decision we’ve made, let us be right and wrong and learn from it ourselves. I think that is far more important than any advice someone can give.
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