All The Action From The Armed Forces Rally Team At Goodwood

The Goodwood Festival of Speed attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators every year to the Earl of Richmond's country estate, where the whole history of motoracing can be enjoyed in one place.

This is the fifth year the Armed Forces Rally team has been invited.

Normally Goodwood coincides with the Scottish Rally, where the team always compete, but this year, that was in May, which has saved the overnight dash from north to South and meant they could be here from the start, especially helpful for the service crew.

They've been competing in the Forest Special Stage, timed against state of the art Rally cars, but the whole experience is one the team is relishing.

Sargeant Wayne Thompson, who is a member of the UK Armed Forces team, is pleased that the team are actually getting a chance to rally like the rest of the WRC (World Rally Championship) guys: 

"It's unbelievable, obviously, the chance of actually getting to do this here. It's nice to actually know that the club, they actually are giving everyone the opportunity to do this here because not everybody gets a chance to do this."

The cars this weekend have been prepped differently, Lance Corporal 'Woody' Wood explains:

"We've removed all the spotlights and that off the front bumpers, mainly because the drivers do have a habit of hitting hay bales and we dont really want to smash up a nice set of lights, other than that we've added a track-rod end for one of the drivers as I am guessing he clipped either a trees stump or a rock out there, other than that we've been quite quiet"

There's huge respect among the organisers, other competitors and spectators for what the AFRT achieves in its ageing white Lands Rovers, but this year perhaps more than any other, the team have been able to enjoy other parts of the festival

Next on the schedule for the team is the Buvington Stages Rally next month.