Adventurer's gas balloon race bid

Mr Hempleman-Adams won the competition in 2008

Wiltshire adventurer David Hempleman-Adams is campaigning to bring a unique balloon race to Bath next September.

The Gordon Bennett Cup is an endurance and distance race won by the pilot who can travel the furthest in a hydrogen gas balloon.

Bath is one of three cities vying to be the launch site, competing with York and Greenwich in London.

Mr Hempleman-Adams, from Box, is the only British man to win the competition in its 103-year, 51-race history.

He told BBC news: "There's huge competition to host this, because it's the first time it's come to this country.

"I think the home of ballooning is the west country."

The event will take place in late September next year, and the location decided by a committee headed by Don Cameron, of Bristol-based Cameron balloons.

Mr Hempleman-Adams added: "I actually think it would be much bigger than the three tenors that came to Bath a few years ago.

"I want to put on a really good do, and I think Bath can do that."