Motorsport charity puts veterans in the driving seat

Steve Binns is looking forward to taking the car onto the racing circuit

A charity is helping Army veterans recover and get rehabilitated through motorsport.

Mission Motorsport, based in East Challow, near Wantage, Oxfordshire, provides practical training and social gatherings, as well as competitive days on race tracks.

Its latest project is to set up a race car that can be driven by people who have lost the use of their legs.

The team has begun reconstructing a crash-damaged 2016 Subaru BRZ to get it roadworthy for the task.

Operations manager Mark White said: "We knew from its eBay listing that our Subaru had sustained front and rear damage, but it wasn’t until we got our hands on the BRZ that we could completely understand the scale of our challenge facing our former services personnel."

The Subaru had front and rear damage following a crash

The aim is to have the car ready for the Race of Remembrance at Anglesey in November.

Most of the team running the car at the 12-hour endurance event, including drivers and pit crew, will be wheelchair users or have life-changing lower limb injuries.

The vehicle has been fitted with hand controls so that foot pedals are not required.

The aim is to have the car ready for the Race of Remembrance

Steve Binns, who is paraplegic and part of the team, told the BBC: "I’d just like to be out on the circuit and be competitive.

"Be the same as anyone else, because once you’re in the car you are the same, and no one cuts you any slack, and I don’t want to be creeping along like a caterpillar.

"I want to be flying along at the same pace as everybody else."

Mike Smith, who has assisted in the restoration of the Subaru, said: "When leaving the services you're leaving your family, your career, everything, and it’s nice to be back with similar people, the same group of people, working on a car."

Mr White said: "I find the stuff that the guys do when they come to the workshop is very healing and restorative.

"It gives them purpose to get out of bed in the morning, [and] come down here.

"They can relive some of that banter they’ve had in a previous life, and then get stuck into the car."