Racing to Victory

On a cold wet Saturday morning 25 teams of driving enthusiasts met at Buckmore Park Karting Circuit in Kent to take part in the Annual Down Syndrome Extra 21 Six Hour team endurance event.

This event has over the past 5 years raised over £90,000 for the charity and is heavily supported by those Paul works with, and this year was no different with six teams being from a number of Sir Robert McAlpine various projects.

Many of the teams are repeat offenders (oops, sorry, repeat “entrants”) so know the form and came loaded with donations on the day. With the rain dying down Practice got under way and while drivers were getting used to the wet race lines their colleagues frantically stuffed envelopes with money to try and secure pole position with sealed bids.

Team ‘Pur Chasers’ were determined to start on pole and without doubt their bid of £1080 definitely secured top spot with 2^nd place secured for £300. The total raised from the bid for grid alone raised £2755. When the lights went green the Pur Chasers  team managed to safely negotiate the first two corners and hairpin while chaos reigned behind and allowed them to build up a good lead, so their plan worked.

Determined not to be left behind was Team 62BG fought back hard and the first 20 minutes saw both teams jostling for the lead followed up by team GT Racing (from Fords) and GJD another regular team who do well at this event.

Throughout the day teams began to improve on their places when laps could be bought to move up the leader board. Three teams were determined to go away with trophies this year and the Milton Courts Mutineers came in 3^rd with 2002 laps on the board, pipped by Pat Kelly’s 62BG team with 3088. But it was Team Mansell who came supercharged with 7014 to take away top spot this year. In all £6,860 was raised through lap buying on the day.

As for the real Race winners well again this was closely fought and after 6 hours racing only 1 lap and 33 seconds split 1^st and 3^rd. But in top spot was Paul Smith’s team ‘Pur Chasers’, ably assisted by Ross Fitzgerald and Danny Bavington to win by 1 clear lap from GJD.

Congratulations to everyone once again who took part and supported us thereby helping us  raise nearly £10k on the day alone.

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