In December 2016 a contingent of British and Irish drivers were invited to Pompano Park in Florida to compete in an Amateur Driving Challenge. After a very competitive three race “brawl”, the British-Irish invaders paced and trotted off with the hardware. Richard Haythornthwaite of Lancashire and Chris O’Reilly of County Cork hit the winners enclosure in the first two events, with Canada’s Shane Arsenault providing the American contingent their only saving grace with a triumph in the last race. The final tally on points was 86 to 67 for the Brits.

Following on from this success, the drivers set about organising another leg to the challenge to be set on British or Irish shores. With the kind agreement of David Wilson and Adam Williams, the first leg of the 2017 challenge is staged on Breeders Crown Finals night at Tir Prince and the second leg will be staged with the kind agreement of Heulwen Bulman at Tan Y Castell on Sunday 6th August to give the Americans a shot at driving on a grass/turf track.

Making up the American Team are:
Dein Spriggs – with 433 USA wins, 9 International wins and driver earnings of $1,018,891. Dein has over 40 years experience in the bike and has been USA Amateur Driver of the year in 2004 and 2005
Ronald Cusimano – 236 current driving wins. Ronald started his career in 1980 and has driver earnings of $715,610
Dennis Whittemore – over 100 USA driving wins on his CV over a 40 year plus career, Dennis has been in the winners enclosure once so far in 2017
Tony Dinges – the newest of the USTA pack, Tony started driving in 2002 and has 24 race wins with earnings of $113,085 amassed
Jeffrey Schaefer – the only USA driver to have already competed under BHRC in 2016 on the grass/turf in Wales. Jeff has 74 drivers wins and almost $200,000 in earnings racked up

Making up the British Team are:
Lee Morris – from Leominster, Lee has 21 race wins in the last five years and over £8,000 in prize money over that period. Lee was last in the winners enclosure in June 2016 with charge Blue Top Gun who starts in the race today
Jaimie Davies – from Powys, Jaimie has 54 race wins since 2012 and over £26,000 in prize money. 7 of the wins already in 2017, 4 of those with the charge Mahogany Dreamer
Chris O’Reilly – from County Cork in Ireland, Chris was triumphant in one of the races at Pompano. In the winner’s circle after the race, O’Reilly related, “where I am from, we don’t have too many meetings (days) to race a year–just 10 or so–and we race on the turf, so this was a bit different for me. Of course, it’s the fastest mile I have ever been in and it was my first time ever driving a trotter!”
Richard Haythornthwaite – from Lancashire, Richard has 123 race wins in the last five years and over £125,000 in prize money. Richard scored recently winning the prestigious Red John Memorial Hurricane Pace at Musselburgh (pictured above)
Patrick Morris – from Leominster, Patrick has 38 driver wins and almost £20,000 prize money since 2012. Patrick is without a race win since June 2015 so will be keen to get up front here

Huge thanks to all the owners that have volunteered and travelled their horses to Tir Prince for this exciting opportunity challenge race.

Good luck to all!!