Since we announced the fundraising partnership between TeamSport and Race2Recovery, the team has continued to develop the skills and experience they need in order to help tackle
the 2013 Dakar Rally. Their toughest challenge so far took place over Remembrance weekend inWales for The National Wales Rally GB for the finale of the FIA World Rally Championship. Before the event even began, the team were welcomed into the WRC community by former World Champion Petter Solberg and co-driver Chris Patterson as they prepared for the forthcoming event at the official shakedown. The event itself was both wet and muddy, but it didn't put the team off. Captain Tony Harris and Andrew Smallridge took control of the Freelander and Ewen Christie and Tom Neathway joined the Armed Forces Rally and took the wheel of the Team Land Rover Wolf. Everyone had a fantastic time and gained invaluable experience along the way, Team Managers Andrew Taylor and Mechanical Manager Dave Reeve were hugely impressed bu the scale of the operation and attention to detail. After the team eventually dried out they headed north for their next task, The Scottish Border Hills Rally, which was the first competitive outing in the QT Wildcat that they plan to use for the Dakar Rally. Despite their best efforts from the team of mechanics, Tony Harris' car suffered mechanical issues on the first day that were not able to be repaired on site. Matt O'Hare drove Ben Gott's Wildcat and they were able to remain the right way up throughout the event and claimed a finish. Unfortunately for both Tom Neathway and Justin Birchall, after the pair were flying and setting a string of top-three stage times, they got water in the electrical systems and had to retire. Overall the Race2Recovery team seems to have had an amazing few weeks and with lots more to come, we will be following them closely throughout each step of their journey for such a worthy cause. Every donation makes such a huge difference to their campaign in order to help injured service personnel and their families.