A MAN from Prestatyn who served 13 years in the Navy took charge of the annual Veterans Banger Rally for the final time this year, getting a tattoo on his backside in the process.
John McGowan, 52, was joined by team-mates from Abergele and Wrexham, who together made up one of the 30 teams who took part in the rally.
The rally itself started with John driving from North Wales to Dover to meet up with the other teams on September 24 to act as the rally manager and book in all the teams.
This was followed by crossing across the UK into Calais, before the six-day journey to Gibraltar; a trip of more than 1,500 miles.
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Prestatyn veteran helps raise thousands in 1,500-mile banger rally to Gibraltar
John has decided that this year, if he exceeded his fundraising goal by the time the convoy hits Benidorm, then he would have the logo of Channel 5’s show, “Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun”, tattooed on his backside.
Father-of-four John travelled in his distinctive yellow Citroen C2, with its pink roof box, and raised money for armed forces charity, Blind Veterans UK.
The show was meant to film part of the rally but had to pull out – but having beat his £1,000 target, John kept his side of the deal.
He said: “We didn’t have Channel 5, unfortunately; right at the very last minute, they pulled out due to timing issues. They’d run out of filming time in Benidorm, but we did a lot of filming ourselves instead.
“Our team raised just over £2,000; our target was £1,000, so we more than doubled that. Overall, we’re probably looking in the region of £15,000 having been raised for Blind Veterans.
“We had 38 different charities across the 30 teams, though, so overall, we’re looking at about £100,000.
“The tattoo has already been done, even though Channel 5 didn’t film it! The money was still raised, so I still had to go ahead and do it. We had it done in Benidorm while we were there.
“It was my last one, so it was very emotional. It’s the right time to step aside, but I went out on a high. We had such a fantastic rally, it was worth doing, and it was good to finish on a high.”
At the rally, teams, where at least one member must be a veteran, drive cars worth no more than £500, and start on 500 points - the older the car and the lower the engine size, the more points you get.
They stopped at Dunkirk to pay respects to the veterans who paid the ultimate price, before moving on to overnight stops in Rouen, Poitiers, Pau, Zaragoza, Benidorm, Malaga, and finally Gibraltar.
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