Here is an update from Max about his Scumrun adventures!!

” Hi everyone!! Well first of all I would like to say thank you for all of the donations that we received as a team, we smashed the £500 target and are just shy of the £1000 mark with more to come in! If your still thinking of donating you can still here www.justgiving.com/scumrunswindon

Well it all started on the Thursday after loading up our beautifully decorated yet slow Mercedes that we had nicknamed “Bertie” due to a resemblance of a giant moving set of liquorice all sorts!! We trundled off to Thruxton race circuit for the launch party and to meet our fellow scumrunners and their steeds for the long weekend!

After turning onto the A419 leaving Swindon we were greeted with a hail of horns and hand waving…we had a inadvertently found another Scumrunner! We had a convoy already!  After a smooth, if damp journey we arrived to what can only be described as a surreal sight! Cars of all shapes and sizes decorated in weird and wonderful ways, there was everything from a full on white American limo to a home made roofless bat mobile and a mad man dressed as a pizza on a moped!!! And am glad to say that all 3 made it all of the way around! After lots of chatting and laughing with people and cringing at some of the cross dressing that had been decided as “fancy dress” we were pulled into a briefing and raffle for prizes hosted by a certain Tiff Needell.  Once this was over the drinking continued, most people very well oiled by this point!! I would like to say though that neither me or Jamie had anything other than a pint as being a 2 man team we were both drivers in the foreseeable future 🙁

Then all of a sudden it was the dash for the 11pm ferry!! Let’s just say I felt very sorry for the “normal” people just trying to have a quiet overnight trip to France!! Once on board after a lot of horn beeping and the front of an unfortunate Peugeot 306 being melted by the bat mobiles afterburner the incredibly small bar area was taken over by 260 strangely dressed Englishman and 4 women from the Sparks charity team!!! The staff were very confused!!

The party continued through the night and upon leaving the ferry at 6am after a couple of hours of disturbed sleep we got our route cards and the madness began!!!

Over the 4 days we drove through France and all the way down to Pamplona in Spain!  Each day there was 2 checkpoints and challenges to go with them.  Each day was finished off with pitching up a tent for the night getting a few drinks down our necks and sharing and hearing all of the Stories of the day as everyone had different experiences and went different routes!

It was a fantastic experience and I met some brilliant people over the 4 days.  So much so that I am doing it again next year! Although I will be booking off the week after to recover as 2/3 hours sleep and 10-15 hour driving days does take it out of you!!

We covered 2000 miles and raised over £1000 as a team so I would say a pretty successful trip on our behalf with the event in total raising over £80,000 for SPARKS children’s charity!!

Would also like to thank Jamie for the driving and look forward to being against him next year as we are both doing the event but on separate teams!

I can’t wait for next year and look forward to your support again. I would particularly like to thank the generosity of our main sponsors below!!

Wiltshire Motor Company for donating the car – www.wiltshiremotorco.co.uk

Impact signs for the donation of the vinyls – www.impact-display.co.uk

LivingWell Health Club at Hilton Hotels for the raffle prizes – www.hilton.co.uk

Rotary District 1100 eClub for your support and donations.

The winners of the raffle prizes are Tracey Sharland & Carole Austin!

I have the vouchers please arrange for collection!

Kind regards Max

For more info please have a look at our site where you will find all the links you need! www.justgiving.com/scumrunswindon “