Fancy a drive round Britain?

Britball II launches 2005 event

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 4 May 2005 / Loading comments

One of these would spice it up

Fancy a drive round Britain over August Bank holiday? Britballrun II will be held on the bank holiday weekend 27/28/29 August 2005. The total distance travelled around Great Britain over the three days will be in the region of 1,200 miles. Any class of vehicle is invited to enter -- current entrants range from Ferrari to Citroen van.

For each of the three days, all teams will start at a pre-announced venue and drive between checkpoints towards a common goal.

Teams will depart at one minute intervals from the start venue and drive towards the first compulsory checkpoint. Only at this checkpoint will teams know the location of the next. There will be three to four checkpoints per day, about 100-150 miles apart. There are no predefined routes between checkpoints. At the last checkpoint, teams will be informed of the location of the finish line and overnight details.

The emphasis is on team work, the skill of navigation, forward planning and quick decision making (and luck depending upon route taken and traffic volume). A documentary of the event is being planned.

Britballrun will proceed under an application for special approval as granted by the Motor Sports Association and the RSAC and will be subject to the Road Traffic Act and the Motor Vehicles (Competitions and Trails) Regulations. All police constabularies will have given their approval and consent of the route. The event is not a race against each other and is not time critical. The only rush should be driving with others.

Teams are encouraged to raise money for charity. Similar to running a marathon, sponsor forms will be included in the entrance pack. This helps to both promote the event and raise money for a good cause. After the event, Britballrun will submit all sponsor funds raised by entrants to Children in Need. Completing the sponsor form is optional.

The cost of entrance for the 2005 event is £595 per vehicle (which includes two people for the three days) -- organising this type of event isn't cheap, said the organisers, adding that the cost of entrance has been calculated by adding together the large fixed costs such as venues, application for special licence, and legal costs with the sum of the variable costs of accommodation, meals etc for each likely team.

This total cost was then simply divided by the expected number of teams to get a final cost per vehicle. Britballrun is designed to bring the thrill of the tour to all at an affordable price and is managed to break-even. "All the entrance fees are put into the event and not our pockets," said the organisers.