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Amateur Racing Team Beats Top Gear Team at Britain's Answer To Le Mans
WOKING, England, September 12 /PRNewswire/ -- An amateur racing team, which included Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Woking computer company Wick Hill and Darron Anley, managing director of Reading computer reseller Security Partnership, beat many professionals and the Top Gear team at the Britcar 24 hours race held at Silverstone at the weekend. (8th/9th September 2007). The team came an amazing 29th out of 80 entrants in the endurance event, which is Britain's answer to the Le Mans 24 hr race. Some of the initial ideas for entering the race came up at a computer awards dinner in May and a team of four drivers and three volunteer mechanics, mainly from the IT industry, was eventually put together. Sponsorship from anti-virus company Kaspersky and IT company Barracuda helped keep things moving. The team, driving a seven year old Honda Integra Type R DC2 with an 1800 cc engine, which was emblazoned with the slogan 'Kasperksy, the fastest anti-virus,' can only be described as amateur. They were battling against proper professional teams driving BMWs, Porsches, Astons, Moslers and GT3. While the professionals had large spare parts packs, mechanics, private catering and other luxuries, the channel team had just the four drivers and three volunteer mechanics. Together they dealt with refuelling, back-up and pit stop work, while the four drivers took turns at solo driving stints. Ian Kilpatrick commented: "It was a great show of effective teamwork in action, including three gearbox rebuilds. Getting third in class on our first outing was great and finishing ahead of so many cars in higher classes was a fantastic result. Beating Top Gear was just a very nice additional bonus." Note For Editors The Top Gear team finished 39th. A wide selection of pictures of the car and team can be downloaded from http://www.wickhill.com/britcar Contact Annabelle Brown for caption information. Web: http://www.wickhill.com.
