A TEAM from Beaminster School Lower Sixth took part in the Damon Hill Karting Challenge to raise money for the Halow project and finished a very respectable 20th out of the 27 teams participating.

The Karting Challenge is a two-and-a-half hour endurance race held at the Sandown Park Kart Track in Esher, Surrey.

The race rules require a minimum of four pits stops, which favours the use five drivers, plus a single refuelling stop.

This year’s event attracted 27 teams with driver ability ranging from professional racing drivers to karting novices.

The Beaminster School Team was selected after testing candidates from the Lower Sixth at Clay Pigeon Raceway in April.

The five drivers chosen to represent the School were Harvey Cullingford, Mary Foster-Grellis, Zac Withers, Jessica Hallett and Kieran Park with each driver doing a 30-minute race stint.

Following the driver briefing and drivers completing their familiarisation laps, the race got underway, with Beaminster School’s Harvey Cullingford taking the start and moving up from 25th to 17th place, setting the team’s fastest lap of 51.875 seconds before pitting to hand over the driving to Mary Foster-Grellis.

After an early fuel stop, Beaminster School dropped to 24th place at the 42-lap mark, but got back up to 20th place during Zac Withers' stint before again dropping to 24th place with driver changes for Jessica Hallett and Kieran Park, who drove the final stint.

However, a succession of consistently quick laps by Kieran moved the team back up the order, taking a respectable 20th place at the chequered flag for Beaminster School after 158 laps of racing.

Predictably, the race was won by Damon’s All Stars, a team that boasted Damon Hill, Laura Tillett, Ollie Millroy and Jody Fanin – three professional racing drivers and a former World Champion – plus stunt driver Salvo Cachia.

The Damon Hill Karting Challenge is an annual fundraising event for the Halow project, which supports young people with learning difficulties and has 1996 World Motor Racing Champion Damon Hill as its patron.

Before the race, Mary Foster-Grellis presented a cheque for £450 to Damon Hill on behalf of the School.