On Armed Forces Day in 2016 the Armed Forces Race Challenge worked closely with commercial partners and MSV to deliver a race meeting at Snetterton which was open to the military and veteran community.  The gates were opened to current and ex-service personnel and their families and AFRC competitors were encouraged to bring their families along too.

Despite only being in the second year of operation under the current management this was the first time AFRC had managed to secure hospitality for competitors which set the standard for future events.

Chris Slator said “The event in June 2016 was great to not just show our sport to members of the military community but the hospitality for competitors also encouraged our people to bring their families along also.  Our awning provided a central location for briefings, shelter from weather and a safe place for families to supervise children.  Through the nature of their work a lot of our competitors spend extended periods of time away from home so it’s great that people feel included to come along to these meetings and there’s a safe place in the paddock.”

The standard at Snetterton in 2016 was continued through until the end of 2019.  AFRC didn’t run due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 was taken as a year to ‘reset’.  Which brings us to 2022.

Paul Sheard, Sheard Autos, Congleton said “We’re extremely excited to announce that we’re able to provide a safe hospitality area for the AFRC competitors at 4 of the 5 rounds of the 2022 calendar.  We ran an MX5 alongside 4x military entries in the 2021 Race Of Remembrance and it was a great experience, everyone at Sheard Autos is looking forward to developing our relationship with AFRC”.

Chris Slator continued “Paul’s been around motorsport for longer than most of our competitors have been in the military and he brings vast experience.  Not just the physical awning and seating area for the teams but he’ll be on hand to provide technical assistance to the competitors at a very competitive rate if required.  Sadly we won’t see him at Brands Hatch as the paddock isn’t large enough to accommodate it but he’ll be at every other round.

Partner relationships are critical to the effective delivery of our championship and it’s great to bring Paul and the team onboard with us.  The quality of the competitive product we deliver to competitors is higher than what is traditionally delivered at this level and these costs and we simply can’t do it without these partnerships.  The season hasn’t started yet and we still have space to onboard other partners to benefit not just from our offerings but also to join our partnership network which we continue to develop, any enquiries to AFRC partnerships should be directed through the website and a member of the team will be in touch.”

AFRC 2022 gets underway on 1st May at Silverstone on the National layout which promises to be an exciting season opener.