Motorsport

Forces racers compete in gruelling six-hour Birkett relay

Five military teams have taken part in the 72nd running of the Birkett six-hour relay at Silverstone.

With 70 teams taking part, the military teams included two from the Royal Air Force, one each from the Royal Navy and the Army and a veterans' team.

The RAF, who were last year's winners, have been champions five times since they began competing in 2005 and they were given the honour of being teams one and two this year.

RAF Team Director, Group Captain Brian Watson, says that the key element of the race is that it is a "team game".

He said: "Racing in a club circuit generally is short racing, and they are up to 20 minutes long, maximum an hour.

"So, to translate that up to doing six hours with a number of drivers, you've got a number of cars and the variables that are involved is a team focus and we provide that focus with the nature of the Air Force.

"This really lands well with this kind of capability, and they can deliver in this kind of race."

Each team needs to lap the circuit as many times within a gruelling six-hour time window, with only one of their team cars running at any one time.

The handicap system awards extra laps to the teams with the least powerful cars. RAF Flywheel was awarded 29 and Per Ardua, their development team, were awarded 36.

Similar awards were given to the Army and the Navy. The Navy's lead driver, Leading Hand Seb Unwin, was one of the drivers who benefited from the handicap system.

He said: "There's not normally many races where you get 70 cars out on track at one time.

"We started at the back with a handicap because we are running predominantly the slower cars that we have for the team just because they have smaller engines and are lower powered.

"With the idea of having a handicap and having equal paced cars that actually, if one of them goes out we are not then ruined on our handicap overall."

The RAF were running first and second at the halfway point, with the Army also running in the top ten.

One of the Army's most seasoned drivers, Staff Sergeant Bair Thomson, spent his last day in Army uniform behind the wheel and doing what he loves.

He said: "This is an iconic race and to finish my last day in the Army is amazing.

"This is a great way to finish what has been a great 22-year career."

For the RAF team, Flywheel, a series of mechanical failures in three of their four cars saw them drop down from first to 48th place, just behind the Armed Forces Challenge veterans who placed 45th.

The Army put on a solid performance to finish inside the top 20, and the Navy completed 149 laps to finish eighth.

The RAF's development team, Per Ardua, finished highest among the forces in sixth place.