Sadly outpaced by the Team Mather, who used their considerable sim-racing experience to great advantage, the Honda squad had a solid race and found themselves involved in a titanic battle for second place with Team OFARC.

Racing through Friday night and into Saturday, the competition was fierce and after the 23rd hour Honda was still locked into a race for the second spot on the podium, setting the scene for an intense drive for the finishing line. A steady set of lap times and a well-oiled set of pitstops earlier on, when Honda gained valuable seconds on the opposition, proved decisive and the boys from Brackley took the chequered flag just 67 seconds ahead of the third-placed team.

"This may have been a charity race but it was so difficult and unbelievably tense at the end!" commented Honda team member Ewen Honeyman. "It’s disappointing not to win; you can’t help feeling gutted. It seems we were beaten by experience in the end. While we might not be as good as our real F1 drivers we do have some talented racers on our team, so this proves that just because you can drive a car well doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good in a sim race. But we did beat the other ‘pro’ teams from Autosport, the Porsche Driving Experience and Auto Express, so we have to be pleased with that. And above all, the event raised a great deal of money for Children In Need, so thank you to everyone who contributed."

The money raised for BBC Children In Need by Honda was £785 while the total funds for the event currently exceed £8,500.

So will the Honda team be back to race again next year? "You’d better believe it!" says Ewen.

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