FIVE years ago, Peter Arnold, a Kingston Maurward IT lecturer was faced with redundancy.

In 2011, after a term of unemployment, the Winterbourne Abbas resident started his own business called PACRE (Peter Arnold Classic Race Engines) and this year PACRE Racing is entering the prestigious Isle of Man Classic TT, arguably the greatest road race circuit in the world dating back to 1907, which is being held in August.

PACRE specialises in engineering, reconditioning and race tuning Classic Honda four-stroke engines.

In three years since the business began, the engines have achieved an impressive roll call of results including championship wins in the last three consecutive years, and a sixth-place finish at last year’s Classic TT 500cc race.

After spending many years working for other teams, this year, Arnold has decided to enter his own team, building a Honda machine and engine.

His love of racing was inspired as a young apprentice in Glouc-ester, by the Nettleton Motor-cycle’s Honda 400/4 ridden by the likes of Formula Three World Championship winners John Kid-son, Bill Smith and Ron Haslam.

The PACRE Honda 350/4 opened out to a full 500cc, will be paying homage to those riders.

Arnold’s team consists of eight people who are dedicating their time and enthusiasm to this project.

Top up-and-coming young Irish racer Shaun Anderson, who already boasts many successes to his racing CV, has been secured to ride the race bike.

Each component of the engine and machine has been redesigned and developed by PACRE with the assistance of many local companies.

Arnold would like to thank Perryshaw Engineering, ETR Plating, Innotec Manufacturing and SALT for their valued time and support in this venture, as well as many others along the south coast.

But to compete against the best in the world is no mean feat and is very costly. PACRE has financed the project to date with members of the team also making a financial contribution. On the cost of funding the venture, Arnold said: “I am hoping to find a sponsor as I’ve so far spent approximately £10,000 on this bike, £960 on ferry bookings and £800 on team clothing.”

The project is looking for a sponsor to continue work in order to fulfil its intentions.

If you are interested in sponsoring the bid, contact Arnold where he can give you details of news and events that the company does to promote their racing.

Arnold can be contacted on 07425132678 or 889273. For more information, visit pacre.co.uk