RAF Marham Richard Burns Memorial Rally 13/14th September

[Digicamco]

Richard Burns Memorial Rally Ready for Take-off

A new charity rally event to celebrate the life of England’s only World Rally Champion has been announced.
The Richard Burns Memorial Rally will take place at Royal Air Force Marham, Norfolk (home to 8% of the Royal Air Force and a third of the Royal Air Force’s aerial warfighting capability), over September 13-14.
It will be a single-venue tarmac event on the Royal Air Force Marham airfield and take in stages of 10-12 miles. Organised by the Kings Lynn & District Motor Club (KLDMC) the rally will feature 120 competitors – with the proceeds of entry going to The Richard Burns Foundation.
It is intended that the event will raise in excess of £100,000 pounds for charity to be split between the Richard Burns Foundation – which provides support for people suffering from life-threatening diseases or injury and the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund which provides similar financial support to serving and retired members of the RAF.
The event will also provide a unique opportunity for amateurs to compete against some of the world’s top drivers – with World Rally Championship greats such as Markko Martin lined up to compete. The date of the rally was picked to coincide with the WRC mid-season break in order to attract the very best cars and drivers from the elite level of the sport.
The inspiration for the event was provided by Richard Burns’ visit to Royal Air Force Marham in 2000 when he was taken for a flight in a Tornado GR4 jet. On the same day Richard gave a member of the Royal Air Force Marham ground crew a driving lesson in a WRC car – which left a lasting impression.
The engineer he took out for a spin that day was Sergeant Chris Daykin. This encounter with Richard inspired a lifelong affinity with the sport, and Chris wanted to do something to pay tribute to the memory of his hero after he passed away due to a brain tumour in 2005.
Chris, an avionics technician with II (AC) Squadron – who will drive his own rally car in the event – said, “People ask me why I am so passionate about rallying and this event. My privileged meeting with Richard changed my life inspiring me to compete in rallying and introducing me to an entirely new group of individuals, many of which have become my closest friends. My immediate family has also recently been affected by cancer, and the grandmother I never had the opportunity to get to know was also lost to a brain tumour some years ago. In this, the 90th Anniversary year of the Royal Air Force, I hope to bring a wide range of people together for this event from the motor sport industry and the Royal Air Force so that our combined efforts can make a difference to people less fortunate than ourselves in health and wellbeing.”
As well as top-class rally action, there will be a number of social events during the weekend. More high-profile entrants will be announced as they are confirmed in the coming months.
The event is being held with the kind permission of Air Commodore Phil Osborn OBE ADC RAF, Station Commander Royal Air Force Marham
Initial interest can be directed to the club's FORUM pages

http://www.kingslynndmc.co.uk/index....oard&Itemid=30
http://www.kingslynndmc.co.uk/content/view/69/26/

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In the 48hours since it's announcement KL&DMC have received many heart warming messages about Richard and about the event and requests for regulations has been unprecedented.

We look forward to seeing many of you there.

Regards

Bob