Monday 23rd February 2015

Race of Remembrance on TV

Mission Motorsport's Race of Remembrance featured in Sky documentary - here's why you need to watch it!

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Mission Motorsport’s work rehabilitating injured servicemen and women through involvement in motor racing has been well documented here on PH, and quite rightly too. Taking part in races is one thing though. Organising your own? Quite a bit bigger, as a documentary showing on Sky this week proves.

The Race of Remembrance was a very Mission Motorsport affair, as our Matt found out when he took part last year. The fact his race suit still smells of champagne is mentioned in the office on occasion too, the Caterham he shared with Mission Motorsport driver Steve McCulley sixth overall and taking class honours.

John (left) and Jim with the Mission Motorsport team

Though Matt does make a fleeting appearance in the show the documentary focuses on the challenge of staging the race and the efforts of Mission Motorsport’s Jim Cameron and John Earp in making it happen. Viewed from the perspective of retired rugby pro (and now adventure racer) Richard Parks it follows the accepted formula of fish out of water celeb on a voyage of discovery. This includes pre-race driver training from Mission Motorsport pro driver (and double amputee) Davie Birrell before joining the race in one of the Jota MX-5s, shared with former PH contributor and now Evo road test editor Dan Prosser and experienced GT racer Calum Lockie.

Credit to Parks and the production team too – his personal story is used as a device to hold the narrative together but rightly takes second place to those of the servicemen and women Mission Motorsport has helped. Which are, at turns, poignant, inspiring and heart-rending.

While it’s great to see some grassroots motorsport getting some mainstream TV coverage it’s the role it can play in rebuilding shattered lives that makes the documentary a must-see. And can hopefully get Mission Motorsport’s work recognised by a much wider audience.

Transmission details below and contained in the info blurb beneath the trailer on YouTube.

See the trailer here

Transmission details:
23/02/2015 21:00:00 Sky Sports 1 Digital Monday
24/02/2015 23:00:00 Sky Sports F1 HD Tuesday
24/02/2015 19:30:00 Sky Sports 4 Digital Tuesday
26/02/2015 09:00:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Thursday
26/02/2015 18:00:00 Sky Sports F1 HD Thursday
26/02/2015 21:00:00 Sky 2 Digital Thursday
28/02/2015 19:30:00 Sky Sports F1 HD Saturday
28/02/2015 22:00:00 Sky2 Digital Saturday
01/03/2015 19:00:00 Sky 2 Digital Sunday
02/03/2015 22:00:00 Sky 2 Digital Monday
02/03/2015 20:00:00 Sky Sports F1 HD Monday
04/03/2015 20:00:00 Sky 2 Digital Wednesday
06/03/2015 17:00:00 Sky 2 Digital Friday
08/03/2015 13:30:00 Sky Sports F1 HD Sunday
09/03/2015 11:30:00 Sky2 Digital Monday
09/03/2015 20:00:00 Sky Sports 1 Digital Monday
12/03/2015 21:45:00 Sky Sports F1 HD Sunday
14/03/2015 15:45:00 Sky Sports 1 Digital Saturday

[JamesHayward]

As a competitor at RoR and friend of Mission Motorsport I too was invited to the preview and all I can say is that this documentary absolutely captures what Mission Motorsport and the race was all about. I described it as 45 minutes of trying not to cry...

[Arun_D]

Thanks, set to record