Reining P1 Powerboat Champion Navigator, Daisy Coleman, for the last 4 years has claimed that co-driving on water with a course that’s ever changing and being surrounded by 10 evenly matched boats is more difficult than off road rallying it was time to put her money where her mouth is.

Daisy from Saundersfoot was more than willing to step up to the challenge and join the Race2Recovery team in the MSA Britpart Cross Country Challenge in Dorset at the weekend.

Not too dissimilar to the P1 Powerboat Championship, the Freelander Challenge is a stock steries, so again it’s the crews that make the difference.

Round 5 of the six event series took place over 10/11 September on Bovington Tank Training area.

When Daisy arrived she was told it was to be a ‘baptism of fire’ as the event is notorious for being difficult of the teams and cars due to the area being used for military tank driver training.

Despite torrential rain spirits weren’t dampened at all.

Daisy was to be racing alongside Jason Gill in his newly adapted hand controlled Freelander due to being paralysed from the waist down. Jason drove phenomenally throughout the weekend with their lap times getting progressively quicker.

Daisy commented: “Despite conditions worsening we were able to improve by choosing better and smoother lines but the biggest concern was driving with mechanical sympathy as we know and with a full days racing planned on the Sunday we wanted to make sure we’d be good to go again”.

After an evening spent socialising with the other teams and BBQ’ing the guys were up bright and early again ready for the Sunday.

With the weather clearing and after escaping Day 1 with very few mechanical issues it was Jason who mentioned “We haven’t had a blow out yet” to which the team swiftly dismissed and scorned Jason for tempting fate.

Sure enough, a few laps into racing Daisy and Jason were greeted by a blowout and despite a swift tyre change were forced to return to the pits as a damaged ratchet strap meant they were unable to secure the blown tyre.

Daisy and Jason achieved a few more laps although Jason wasn’t convinced the car was running right so were forced to retire after Crew Chief Mo Booker assessed that the car was no longer able to compete due to several issues with the steering system.

Luckily the guys had completed 85 oper cent so classed as an event finish awaiting results. Daisy was also fortunate to then jump in with the Birchall race team for their last lap which was unfortunately cut short due to shattering one of the wheels.

Daisy added: “There’s definitely some crossover from offshore navigating to the cross country circuit! What a fantastic weekend and special thanks to all the team and event staff for the opportunity!

Having experienced first-hand how motorsport can aid veterans recovery I’m looking forward to getting involved with the team more to give others the opportunity to push boundaries and achieve what others may think unachievable.”

You can find out more about Race2Recovery on their website at http://race2recovery.com/r2r/ and by following them on twitter and facebook.