Roman Motor-Chariot

The Challenge This week, a challenge fit for Circus Maximus in ancient Rome: chariot racing … with iron horses! With the whole team standing on a chariot, somehow they'll have to control a runaway engine around a twisting race track. Should they survive round one, they'll race again in a gladiatorial dash to smash and bash their way to victory in the Scrapheap Challenge 2004 series final. The Anoraks The Anoraks shot the Up 'n Atoms down in flames with their Flame Flinger in the second of our semi finals. With their expectant team captain Geoff Turtell waiting for his wife to go into labour, Surrey lads Marc Draper and Lyndon Camidge won't want to hang around. Named after their club, these three can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners. Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team. Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way. Joining The Anoraks is Nick 'Rhino' Boyland who runs Rhino Trikes, one of the UK's foremost kit and trike manufacturers. He has been hammering out trikes for 13 years. Before that, he was a mechanic and car salesman in Germany. He also worked as a civilian contractor in a REME engineers' workshop. He has plenty of skills and experience and he looks a bit like a young Meatloaf. So will his creation go like a bat out of hell? Hairy Hogs In our first semi final, the Hairy Hogs were the victors in the battle of the bikers as they beached The Thirsty Knights with their landing craft. The Hogs are three fun-loving bikers from Belfast. Captain Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott combine the talents of an electrician, mechanic and a plumber and are all members of the same Harley Owners Group. Big men, with personalities and hearty laughs to match, they are up for most things – except water-based challenges. So having come through the Landing Craft and Jet Boats challenges, they'll be glad to be on terra firma at last. The Hogs' expert is all-rounder Andy Armstrong. Andy has built all sorts of weird and wonderful machines from 4x4s to trikes. He has trained with a wide variety of vehicle mechanics. At the moment, he is chief mechanic at a specialist lawn-mower firm but has also worked for a number of main car dealerships, including Ford (where he got his Cosworth training) and Mercedes Trucks. His nickname is Scoob because of his odd laugh. The judge The judge for the series final is Tony Smart who is the authority on chariots in the UK. A former circus horseman, Tony knows what will work and what won't when it comes to charioteering. He can speak at length about chariot design and history and runs a stunt firm which does some of the most dramatic horse work for film and television.