Adventure Racing Gets New British Championships

The 2004 ACE Races, adventure race series has finished for the year with the Saab Salomon team retaining their British Championship title at the last race. The big news however, is that next year Ace Races will be staging an expedition-length race, which will be replace the British Championship series.

The first Wilderness ARC will take place in Scotland between August 22-26th and promises to be the "ultimate adventure race". Mixed teams of four will race across the highlands on foot, bike and water with no support crews allowed. As an expedition race, like the Eco Challenge and similar, the teams can choose whether to sleep or rest, but the clock will keep ticking regardless.

As well as being the British Championship, the race will also join the AR World Series, which includes other international races from Brazil, South Africa, North America and New Zealand. The winning team at Wilderness ARC will claim a place on the starting line up of Southern Traverse on the West Coast of New Zealand next November for the 2005 World Championship.

It's a major coup for the guys at ACE Races, who've been running a series of one and two-day format events for several years now as well as the30-hour winter event, the ACE XXX and are widely acknowledged as the leading UK race organisers. " Now experienced British teams will be able to test themselves in a multi-day, expedition race, against international competition," commented Race Director Phil Humphreys.

Working with ACE Races on the Wilderness ARC will be Jim Mee and Gary Tompsett, the men behind the Red Bull Northern Exposure winter race in 2002 and the urban Edinburgh Rat Race phenomenon in 2004.