Huddersfield woman's brilliant proposal gets hearts racing
A couple's relationship just stepped up a gear in a heart-racing proposal for the bride and groom-to-be.
Claire Megson, from Huddersfield, found the winning formular (one) for a memorable way to ask her boyfriend to marry her - by getting the question written on a racing car at Silverstone.
Her now-fiancé Darren Bullas and Claire are huge British Touring Car Championship so when she saw the competition by Bristol Street Motors to have a message featured on the car of BTCC title contender Tom Ingram, her mind started racing and she came up with a winning idea.
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Claire bagged first prize and, after luring Darren to Silverstone (not that it took much persuasion!) the header on the rear of the Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 Fastback N was unveiled as she popped the question at the penultimate meeting of the 2024 season at Silverstone.
Believing Claire had won a weekend at the circuit with the chance to enjoy a tour of the team garage, Darren was stunned when Ingram unveiled the message: 'MR D.B WILL YOU MARRY ME?'. And of course, he said yes.
Claire said: “When I first saw the competition, I knew exactly what message to put on the car as we are huge fans of the BTCC and it seemed to be the perfect way to pop the question. I was always confident that Darren would say yes, and the whole day was better than I ever imagined it would be."
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The soon-to-be newly weds Darren and Claire were treated to a VIP experience at the circuit courtesy of Bristol Street Motors and its racing partner ExcelR8. The pair were invited to watch a race from the Silverstone commentary box before heading out onto the grid to get up close to the BTCC car and see their message before Ingram did battle on track.
Darren also got to hand out the trophies after an action-packed encounter for the Vertu Mini Challenge Trophy, before the pair returned to the BTCC grid ahead of the final race to be interviewed live on ITV4 about the proposal by pitlane reporter Louise Goodman.
Darren said: “As far as I knew, Claire had won a chance to enjoy hospitality for race day and to go into the Team Bristol Street Motors garage to look around the car, so when Tom Ingram peeled off the stickers to reveal the message, I couldn’t believe what was happening.
“It was a pretty emotional moment and very surreal, as I don’t think there are many people who can say they have been proposed to in the pitlane at Silverstone! We’ve always been huge fans of the BTCC, and of motorsport in general, but I don’t think there will ever be a day at a race track that is going to match this one.”
The proposal proved to be a good luck charm for Ingram, who went on to win two of the three races at Silverstone securing his place in the final weekend of the season at Brands Hatch in his quest to secure a second championship title.
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But for Claire and Darren, that was just the icing on the cake as they rev into the next stage of their relationship. Claire said: "Bristol Street Motors went above and beyond to make us feel special and the opportunities we were given were absolutely amazing, from going in the commentary box to seeing Darren up on the podium handing out some trophies.
"As for being interviewed on the grid, my phone went crazy with messages from people who had seen us suddenly pop up on their screens at home. I can’t thank everyone at Team Bristol Street Motors enough for what they have done, and it’s a day we’ll never forget."
Have you got an interesting proposal story? We'd love to hear about it in the comments below or you can email faye.preston@reachplc.com.