Led by sales director Geoff King the four strong team is set to journey across Europe in a 12- year-old BMW bought for just £395 to compete in the Gamma Ball Rally II.
The event will see them travelling over 1,000 miles in the Y-registration estate car on a journey that will take them from Newbury to Budapest via Brands Hatch, Bruges, Warburg and Vienna. Along the way they will also complete four laps of the infamous Nurburgring, a private motorsports track that includes a GP circuit.
Despite visiting both UK and German tracks the rally is not a race. Instead competitors will earn points by completing tasks set along the way. They must tackle the journey in a car which they have bought for less than £500 and, if it breaks down, face the embarrassment of completing the trip in the official back up vehicle – a pink Ford Ka!
The Pennine team’s participation has already ensured that two charities are £500 better off. The rally’s organiser - business communications and software services company Gamma - has arranged for all entry fees to directly benefit Action Through Enterprise, which aids starving Ghanaian children, and East Cheshire Hospice.
In addition Pennine are seeking to raise further funds for Bury Hospice which it already sponsors.
“It looks like a great challenge, one that promises a lot of fun, some potentially embarrassing moments and, whatever happens, will raise a good deal of money for some excellent charities,” commented Mr. King. “We already support Bury Hospice and know the absolutely fantastic work it does so this is the perfect opportunity for us to raise funds for them. We encourage our customers and suppliers to donate via our JustGiving page.”
The team will compete as “4 Mancs in a Car” with Geoff joined on the four day challenge by operations manager, Xavier Senelle, mobile business manager, Steve Tipper, and Adam Brierley, a Manchester-based account manager for Gamma.
The team will depart from Newbury on Wednesday 11th September and, if all goes well, are due to arrive in Budapest on Saturday 14th September. If and when they make it to the Hungarian capital they’ll then attend a gala prize-giving dinner and a “money can’t buy” charity auction. They can then choose whether to tackle the return journey in their jalopy or have it recycled and instead fly back. “I think we’ll play that one by ear” says Geoff tentatively!