After already winning medals in racing, rallying and karting, Team UK had seven further opportunities to add to its tally on the final day of the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games in Valencia. Gloriously two of those opportunities turned out to be golden and one each of silver and bronze, promoting Team UK to a very creditable fourth in the final medals table.

On Sunday, the Ricardo Tormo Circuit would stage GT Sprint, F4, Single Make GT and Touring Car finals – and Team UK had strong representation in all four categories. The circuit would also witness the Drifters going for gold, silver and bronze as well as the Medal Race for the top three from Historic Rally, with Team UK guaranteed a medal in that discipline after the heroics of Ben Mellors and Alex Lee on both gravel and asphalt stages. Team UK also had an outside chance of a karting medal with 14-year-old Jorje Edgar at the Aspar Circuit… but more of that later.

Competing in GT Sprint, Darren Leung had a busy day with Free Practice and two Qualifying sessions (including Super Pole) in the morning and then a 40-minute race which would bring the curtain down on the circuit racing programme at the Games.

Earlier in proceedings, the first medal opportunities would come in Touring Cars where Jenson Brinkley would start from the sixth row of the grid after retiring his Seat from Saturday’s punishing Qualifying Race.

With 30 minutes plus a lap to make up the lost ground, Brinkley made a fast start in slippery conditions but his hopes were quickly dashed by a drive-through penalty resulting from a team issue pre-start. He kept charging but eighth was the best he could muster in the circumstances.

Next up it was the turn of the F4 single-seaters where Team UK’s hope Reza Seewooruthun would start from just outside the medal positions in fourth place on the grid. Much to local delight, the Spanish entry led from lights-to-flag chased by Peru and Sri Lanka with Seewooruthun seemingly destined to miss out on a medal in fourth. Team UK, however, grabbed a bronze when the Sri Lankan driver was hit with a track limits penalty.

Team UK’s next shot at a medal came in the Single Make GT final where James Owen would start the all Ferrari showdown from the outside of the front row – alongside the pole sitting Spanish entry.

From the rolling start, Owen grabbed the early advantage but Spain quickly fought back to retake the lead on lap two. As the race progressed, though, Owen’s challenge reignited and two laps from home he took his chance to give Team UK its first gold medal. The deposed Spanish car actually barged its way back through on the final lap but with no consequence as by then it had been given a 25 second penalty for a starting procedure infringement.

“It was a great result – P1!” said the delighted victor. “I managed to get past him on track. He then hit me from behind on the last lap but it didn’t matter as he had a penalty. I just limped it home and got the gold!”

GT Sprint rounded out the race action with Leung finishing fourth and just failing to add to Team UK’s growing medal haul.

With the racing completed, the Ricardo Tormo Circuit also hosted final three lap shoot-outs for rallying medals. Although Mellors and Lee had dominated the Historic category over the opening two days on both gravel and asphalt, their lead would count for nothing other than a shot at gold, silver and bronze in their 1979 Toyota Celica GT.

Moreover, the layout of the final stage on track would massively favour the far more powerful, four-wheel-drive 1981 Audi quattro of Italian rivals Andrea ‘Zippo’ Zivian and Nicola Arena and, sure enough, Mellors had to settle for silver.

“Silver wasn’t really the result we wanted having had such a big lead over the whole rally but we gave it everything in the shoot-out,” admitted Mellors with mixed emotions.

Circuit Ricardo Tormo also hosted a record line-up of drifters competing on a bespoke course constructed within the venue. Team UK’s Lwi Edwards was among those to make it through to Sunday’s Top 32 – a head-to-head, knockout format. Sadly, however, he did not progress to the medal rounds.

Earlier on Sunday at the Aspar Circuit, Jorge Edgar was Team UK’s other medal hope having done well to qualify for the final heats of Karting Sprint Junior for drivers aged 11-14 – a category which had attracted not fewer than 36 entrants from around the globe.

Despite his relative lack of international experience, the young British dark horse caused a major upset by storming through the field from a lowly seventh on the grid to pass many more fancied rivals to snatch Team UK’s first gold of the day and the Games.

“It’s really good to win the first Team UK gold medal, especially as the driver here are so good,” admitted Jorge. “It really means a lot to me to win the first gold medal.”

While Team UK can be proud of its achievements in Valencia, the Games themselves were the big winners with a record number of 646 athletes representing 82 nations participating in the third edition of the ever-expanding biannual event.