OP updated.
Parade lap briefing is Saturday 9am so an early start if you’re heading from home that morning.
Parade laps are 10.10 to 11am, and you MUST attend the briefing to be able to participate.
See you there…
MISSION MOTORSPORT TRAINING PROGRAMME ON TARGET WITH NISSAN
Next week a team of wounded service personnel from Mission Motorsport will compete in the Britcar 24 Hours in a Nissan 370Z. Major James “Jim” Cameron, Tpr James “Jimmy” Gillborn, L/Cpl Martyn “Copey” Copleston and Sgt Gary “Gaz” Dunning still have a mountain to climb before they line up on the grid at Silverstone but they are making incredible progress with their preparations.
Mission Motorsport on track in a GT Academy Nissan 370Z
The most pressing matter to be dealt with was the acquisition of racing licences for Jimmy, Copey and Gaz as they cannot compete without a licence. The winners of GT Academy go through a process during the driver development phase where they notch up the relevant experience to obtain their licences. Nissan now has four years of experience of this development phase so has been able to help the team make the right choices and condense the time it takes to earn the coveted paperwork right down to just a few weeks.
With licences in hand the next step was to ramp up the driver training and head to Base Performance Simulators in Banbury for some intensive simulator tuition.
At Base Performance the team was guided by Darren Turner, an established British star with double Le Mans victories under his belt. The simulator is a safe environment for the team to learn the Silverstone track with constant coaching feedback. This really shortens the learning time, which is vital as they have to learn so fast that any opportunity to shorten the learning curve needs to be taken.
“I was genuinely surprised by their progress,” commented Turner. “Their ability to listen to instruction and apply what they learn is impressive. I guess that’s military training for you! They all improved rapidly, Gaz in particular. Jimmy was the quickest of the lot, which is amazing when you consider he’s a single amputee. I don’t think a 24 hour race is going to faze these guys in the slightest.”
Learning lines at Base Performance Simulators
Fresh from the simulator the team headed to Thruxton to drive track-prepared Nissan 370Zs and a Nissan GT-R, the same cars that were recently used in the finals of GT Academy. This time out the team members were treated to a racing masterclass from Le Mans legend, Derek Bell.
“We talk about heroes but to me these guys are the real heroes,” said Bell, who has won the Le Mans 24 Hours five times. “They’re not racing drivers or mountaineers or anything but people who have actually put themselves on the line for their country. We hear all the time about these guys being badly injured so I wanted to do whatever I could to help Mission Motorsport.”
“Motorsport is really good sports therapy,” said Major Cameron. “In the same way as the Paralympics it is a fantastic tonic for our disabled population. For the guys recovering from military operations motorsport is a very cathartic way to re-engage, to find their confidence again and to work as part of a team.”
“The Britcar 24 Hours is a massive challenge for us,” continued Major Cameron. “Especially when you consider one of the guys only took his ARDS test a couple of weeks ago. It’s fantastic to have Nissan as a partner in this as they have such a good track record of bringing people through the ranks with the pioneering GT Academy driver development programme. What we really love though is that Nissan is relishing the challenge just as much as we are and that this is only the beginning.”
“We talk about heroes but to me these guys are the real heroes,” said Bell, who has won the Le Mans 24 Hours five times. “They’re not racing drivers or mountaineers or anything but people who have actually put themselves on the line for their country. We hear all the time about these guys being badly injured so I wanted to do whatever I could to help Mission Motorsport.”
“Motorsport is really good sports therapy,” said Major Cameron. “In the same way as the Paralympics it is a fantastic tonic for our disabled population. For the guys recovering from military operations motorsport is a very cathartic way to re-engage, to find their confidence again and to work as part of a team.”
“The Britcar 24 Hours is a massive challenge for us,” continued Major Cameron. “Especially when you consider one of the guys only took his ARDS test a couple of weeks ago. It’s fantastic to have Nissan as a partner in this as they have such a good track record of bringing people through the ranks with the pioneering GT Academy driver development programme. What we really love though is that Nissan is relishing the challenge just as much as we are and that this is only the beginning.”
L-R: Gaz, Copey, Derek Bell and Jimmy with the Nissan GT-R
In practice for the parade lap, I’ve been to take this out for a spin:
Awesome, just awesome.
Vantage V8 finished 2nd behind a Ferrari 430 last year.
The noise as they pulled out of the pitbox was incredible 
More Britcar news added to the original post, great opportunity to see the Dunlop team from the inside…
Hi
I have just received an update about the booking instructions & have noticed that I did not put mx5oc infield pass in the free text box.
Is there anything I can do about this now?
Thanks
Clare
A quick email will solve this, you’re not the first.
Other than that, I’ll be whizzing around Silverstone all weekend on my little Ducati (that’ll make sense when you get there). Any dramas at the gate, ring me (PM sent) and I’ll pop down and sweet-talk the Gate-Gestapo 
I did this too - I rang them the next day & they told me to send an email to admin@britcar24hr.co.uk - told them of my schoolboy error & a few days later all tickets/infield passes arrived in the post:)
Hi,
thats great
thanks for your help
Yet another update added to the OP 
Both cars packed, off early tomorrow morning so offline now 'till Sunday, barring finding a wifi somwhere to send the report for the next Soft Top Hardtop…
Hoping to see lots of you there, weather looks more than 
and lots of this sat in the boot of my car 
And as I left work the lads were getting in on the act too…
I’ll have to wander over & say hi. Should be onsite tonight.
BTW, update on MacG. The lads there were working on the car till 4am this morning swapping the LS7 vette engine as the one yesterday had a rod let go & fubarred the engine in practice.
Let’s hope she lasts today & the race, gulp!! At 7k a pop they ain’t cheap.
Cheers, Shane
Hay oop Jon,
Sorry we never met up. To put it bluntly, 3 hrs sleep since Sat am, lol. That was a manic weekend then. Bed calls, big time!!
The times I did wander past, couldn’t see you to say hi. I understood you had your share of fun & games as well 
Cheers, Shane