The end of another year approaches and once again I’m looking back with utter pride for our team’s achievements.
We’re seven years on from the launch of Team BRIT and whilst I portray a dogged personality of stubborn, resolute belief in what we’re capable of, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a sense of awe when I look back at what we’ve done at the end of each year.
Most organisations will rightly have blips in their progress, and of course we’ve faced many a challenge. But year on year we’ve grown, we’ve got stronger, and we’ve added more achievements to our list of things to be proud of.
2022 was no exception.
In January we started the year with renewed support from our long-term title sponsor Brit Insurance, and from major supporter, Adrian Flux. Their support is pivotal to what we do. We welcomed another driver to the team – Paul Fullick has been a fantastic ambassador for everything we do from day one, and joined with rookie Tyrone Mathurin to compete in Britcar. In February we headed out to Portimao in the Algarve for winter testing in our Mclaren, we welcomed sports branding experts Twelfthman and insurance recruitment specialists Harrison Holgate to our team of sponsors.
In March, Orckid came on board and launched our fantastic new website, and our season kicked off at Silverstone with the first rounds of Britcar and the British Endurance Championship. Chris and guest driver Julian Thomas started out as we meant to go on with a class win in the M240i, as did Luke and Andy with a storming first race in BEC. Also in March, Kiba joined us with a bang and introduced us to the brilliant new mascot that would then show up at a number of races this season, and Aaron’s personal sponsor CDW expanded their support to the wider team – a really pivotal moment for us.
In April we made history for the first time in 2022 with our entry in the British GT Championship. Aaron and Bobby were the first ever all disabled team to enter the series. We had a brilliant time at Dunsfold welcoming GB Paralympian rowers to try out our tech, and we saw a surge of new sponsorship support from RS, Karcher and Hey!
In May and June we saw some brilliant results on the track with Chris and James bagging yet more class wins and the silverware collection grew from British GT with second in class finishes for Bobby and Aaron.
In July we saw a major milestone with Bob and Aaron not only winning their class at Spa but finishing 3rd overall in the GT4 category. Bob was recognised with a national autism award by the Anna Kennedy charity, we welcomed sponsors to the track for our annual karting event at Daytona, and invited BTCC legend Jason Plato to try out our tech at Dunsfold.
In August, Chris and James took another class win, and we headed over to the spinal injury unit at Salisbury Hospital so that spinal injury patients could try out racing on our sim. In September Vodafone Business became the latest Team BRIT backers, nearly 20 teams from the insurance sector battled against our drivers in our kart race at Daytona Sandown Park and we visited more spinal injury patients at Salisbury Hospital.
October saw the announcement of our championship positions and we were over the moon to confirm that Chris and James had won the Britcar Trophy Championship – another line in the history books as the first all-disabled team to win a national championship. We were also confirmed as second in class in British GT – simply brilliant.
In November we saw some richly deserved recognition for our Engineering Director Al Locke, who won a bronze award in the national Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Innovation Awards and we launched our latest project – a 2 team entry in the 2023 C1 Series, therefore adding another rung to our ladder of motorsport development opportunities for disabled drivers.
What. a. year.
This overview barely touches the surface of everything we’ve done in the last 12 months and I could not be more proud.
It takes a team like no other to achieve this, surrounded by the belief and support of our extremely loyal sponsors, partners and fans.
I’d like to thank everyone who has played a part in Team BRIT’s 2022 success and story and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.
