Race Report: Thruxton Retro, 4 July 2026

After securing a NORA Motorsport licence with his medical cannabis prescription declared, Sal immediately began looking for an opportunity to return to competitive motorsport.

Thruxton was the natural choice. It was the circuit where Sal had first entered motorsport as a marshal, making it the perfect place to relaunch his motorsport career from behind the wheel.

Preparation for the event was suitably grassroots.

Sal crudely applied a cannabis-themed livery to his Vauxhall Insignia estate before we posted a teaser on social media. Despite the appearance, we were generating attention before the car had even reached the start line.

The Insignia was not built for drag racing. It is a diesel estate, complete with a roof box, rather than one of the specially prepared machines normally associated with the drag strip.

The team knew the Insignia was unlikely to be competitive against dedicated racing machinery. The first objective was simply to take part.

Sal drove to Thruxton feeling the familiar mixture of excitement and nerves that accompanies any motorsport event. This time, however, those emotions were amplified by everything he had experienced in the sport.

This was more than his first drag-racing event.

It was his return to competitive motorsport as an openly prescribed medical cannabis patient. It was also the public launch of a team created to challenge the stigma and exclusion patients continue to experience.

On arrival, event staff were understandably surprised to discover that the Vauxhall Insignia estate with a roof box was there to race.

But one of the attractions of a Run What You Brung event is contained in the name: almost anything can be raced.

Sal was directed to Thruxton's runway, which had been transformed into a drag strip for the event. After signing on, the Insignia passed scrutineering and was cleared to take part.

The unlikely race car was ready.

Sal drove into the staging area and joined the queue alongside a remarkable mixture of machinery. The entry included purpose-built drag cars, powerful performance vehicles, modified classics and ordinary road cars.

As he moved towards the front of the queue and began staging at the lights, the significance of the moment finally sank in.

To an observer, it may have looked like somebody preparing to drive an estate car quickly down a straight runway.

To Sal and PatientsCann UK®, it represented something far greater.

A medical cannabis patient who had been excluded from one pathway into motorsport had found another. He had declared his prescription, obtained a licence, passed scrutineering and reached the start line through the relevant processes.

The lights changed.

Sal accelerated down Thruxton's runway.

With that first green light, the PatientsCann UK® Motorsport Team was officially launched.

The location made the moment especially symbolic.

Thruxton's runway sits inside the main circuit. While Sal completed his runs under the NORA and Straightliners framework, Motorsport UK-regulated activity was taking place on the circuit around him.

He was literally racing in the middle of the motorsport environment from which prescribed medical cannabis patients had been excluded under a different governing system.

The contrast demonstrated why PatientsCann UK® believes that transparent, evidence-based participation processes are possible. Safety remains essential, but automatic exclusion is not the only way in which a governing body can respond to legally prescribed medication.

Once the first-run nerves had settled, Sal returned to the staging lanes repeatedly throughout the day.

He raced against everything from specialist drag machinery to conventional road cars. Unsurprisingly, the diesel estate was not troubling the fastest competitors, but outright performance was never the primary objective.

The official results record 15 completed runs. Sal's best time was 11.07 seconds, with his runs generally finishing at between 61 and 64 mph. His highest recorded terminal speed was 64 mph.

More importantly, Sal participated consistently throughout the event while managing and using his legally prescribed medication.

One event cannot establish that every medical cannabis patient is suitable for every motorsport role. Patients, roles and circumstances differ. However, the day demonstrated that a prescribed patient could disclose their medication, follow a governing body's process and participate repeatedly in a live motorsport environment.

There were no trophies for the PatientsCann UK® Motorsport Team at Thruxton Retro, and the Insignia estate did not suddenly become a thoroughbred drag car.

The achievement was reaching the start line at all.

Each completed run made medical cannabis patients visible within motorsport for the right reasons: participating openly, following the rules and contributing to the event alongside everyone else.

The day also showed what accessible motorsport can look like. Sal did not arrive with a purpose-built car, a professional crew or a huge racing budget. He arrived in his everyday Vauxhall estate with a homemade livery and a roof box.

And he raced it.

The 15 runs provided a successful launch, but the team's longer-term ambition is to create visibility, collect evidence of patient participation and help prescribed medical cannabis patients explore responsible routes into motorsport and continue driving out cannabis stigma.

The team will continue working with patients, clubs, event organisers and governing bodies that are willing to consider fair, transparent and proportionate participation processes.

Sal returned to the circuit where his marshalling journey began, this time as a competitor. He staged an unlikely estate car on Thruxton's runway, watched the lights turn green and launched more than a vehicle.

Full event results: straightliners.events

The team’s launch at Thruxton Retro was reported in the specialist and local press.