Cast your mind back a couple of weeks, and you may remember the Workplace post from Brad Binding regarding the 4BallR tour of the UK that he was taking part in to raise awareness for the Campaign Against Living Miserably’s (C.A.L.M) Best Man Project.
Having returned from this epic 4-day journey, I spoke with Brad to see how he got on.
How did you get involved with the tour?
I was actually looking for an event series to enter my pet project track car in when I came across a post looking for willing participants in a new UK rally. Being set up as the first in a yearly ‘4BallR’, I was keen to be involved in the inaugural experience.
It was only in February that the organiser asked for my help in arranging some of the finer details of the charity connection to maximise the potential.
The charity you picked was CALM, can you tell us a bit more about them?
The work CALM does as a charity is invaluable. In their own words;
- We operate on the frontline, delivering services for men in crisis or distress, supporting the people around them and those bereaved by suicide
- We campaign for long-term culture change to redefine and open up masculinity so that over time fewer men will need our services at crisis point
- A free helpline 0800 585858 and webchat (5pm–12am daily), which are confidential, anonymous and staffed by trained professionals
- theCALMzone.net is CALM’s website, hosting inspiring content written by men for men alongside information and support
- CALM’s helpline and webchat services directly prevented 675 suicides in 2018
- Since CALM was founded in 2006, awareness of male suicide has quadrupled and currently sits at 45% nationally
- CALM supports over 7,000 contacts on the helpline and webchat each month
The main reason I was keen to work with CALM is through personal experience with friends who’ve suffered from mental health and the challenges of seeking support as a ‘middle-aged’ man. Specifically three years ago my co-pilot for the tour & I lost a good friend to suicide and want to prevent anyone else suffering directly or indirectly from such a sad loss of potential.
Centrally, CALM supports people that need help but their #bestmanproject really taps into what’s important here. Being a best man is not just for stag-do capers and wedding days, it’s for every day!
You can find more information about the Best Man Project at the following link:
https://www.thecalmzone.net/2018/02/join-the-bestmanproject/?highlight=bestmanproject
For those who would like to support this cause, our Just Giving page is:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/team-top-golf
So Brad, or should I say Maverick, how did the Top Gun theme come about?
Purely by accident. We needed a placeholder team name and that was the default. We’d assumed multiple teams would have the same idea but we were the only 80’s pop culture team in attendance. The design was primarily my work, with some help from a friend in making and applying the vinyl. It took 2 hours to peel it all off after!
Tell us about the Tour.
27 cars and 4 support vehicles took off from the Ace Café in London at 9 am on the 27th June, to embark on a tour of the UK using primarily A and B roads to find some of the best driving roads in the UK. Our route was based on a series of route cards so all we had to do was to stick to the plan.
The convoy of cars featured a range from a 1977 John Player espirit, an original mini, a Kia Ceed (team reasonably priced car) all the way to an Audi R8 & RS3. While not all were themed like ours, every car was covered in CALM logos.
Along the route, we camped each night to make the most of the trip and the amazing scenery we encountered, which was helped by the great weather we had! The most important part was to make sure we were fully fuelled for the journey…and by this, I don’t mean Petrol …I mean Starbucks!!
The roads and comradery were the main features but each day featured additional challenges including to photograph cars outside of castles, which led to some interesting covert missions onto grand driveways. I mentioned team reasonably priced car earlier, well on our route was the house belonging to Richard Hammond so off we went to gate-crash his house and take advantage of the grand gatehouse it had. We ended up winning the competition with our picture in front of Easton castle and drove home with a trophy as a result!
We came across some incredible roads and managed to take some great pictures along the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. I am happy to report that while a few of the cars suffered breakdowns, most were fixed without the need for the 5th emergency service, and all cars rolled across the finish line in Edinburgh on the 30th. Our only proper casualties were the two front tyres of one of the Audis, which was to be expected.
After a total of 1200 miles driven, it was time to head home.
Finally do you have any future plans for any other events, and are there any details of how others can join?
Arrangements are already underway for 4BallR 2020. The best way to keep in touch is to follow 4ballr on Instagram (for many more shots of the gorgeous cars and scenery from this year). C.A.L.M (@calmzone) also works with other motorsport events to raise awareness.
Congratulations to Brad for completing the tour and raising awareness for such an important charity, and a big thanks for all the pictures and information for this year’s event…best of luck for next year! We look forward to seeing what the next theme will be…
