The stars of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship will swap their racing boots for football boots at the end of the season to help raise cash for charity.
SEAT Sport UK’s Jason Plato, James Thompson and Darren Turner (pictured right), Team RAC’s Colin Turkington and Robert Collard, Thurlby Motors with Tech-Speed’s Paul O’Neill, Team Halfords’ Gareth Howell and Fast-Tec Motorsport’s Mark Proctor will be the driving force behind the Dunlop BTCC Wanderers squad that faces a line-up of celebrities and ex-professional football greats on Sunday 29 October.
Non-league side Chesham United, from Chesham near Hemel Hempstead, has kindly offered its stadium The Meadow for the event. Its manager, ex-England and Watford star Luther Blissett, will take on the managerial duties for the Wanderers!
One of his jobs will be to hone the talents of the BTCC’s leading scorers Thompson and O’Neill, who both netted one goal when British motor racing’s premier championship took to the field in 2003 for a similar charity event.
Double BTCC champion Thompson said: “I think my goal was more luck than judgement, but I’m hoping I’ll be in the right place at the right time again – that’s where Luther will come in! I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be a fun day out where the crowd will see lots of goals – sadly most of them against us no doubt.”
The event will help the emergency appeal of the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home charity which provides terminally ill patients with a 24-hour on-call nursing home care service. The charity needs to raise £200,000 by April 2007 in order to prevent reducing its service.
BTCC fan Blissett said: “Iain Rennie Hospice at Home is a vital charity in our area and hopefully we can help the appeal by putting on a bit of entertainment on the football pitch. I played for the BTCC last time it did an event like this and thought it would be good to organise a similar event to help this emergency appeal. Everyone at Chesham United is delighted they can be a part of it.”
The Dunlop-backed BTCC team will take on Celebrities United which includes the likes of Cyril Regis and some of the personalities from television show The Match. The event could turn into a mini-tournament, however, with two teams featuring television stars still to be confirmed.
Admission will be £5 for adults and £1 for children under 16 with all proceeds going to the appeal. As well as the matches there will be on-pitch competitions for spectators. Kick-off will be 1pm.
After the event, the BTCC players will sign and donate their football shirts to an on-line auction – to be held on the BTCC.net website – to further boost the appeal fund.
Further information about Iain Rennie Hospice at Home can be found at: www.irhh.org.
Meanwhile, the BTCC drivers are getting ready for their final three, title-deciding rounds of the 2006 season at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire on 15 October.
