A NORTH Baddesley man raced to victory in a national powerboat competition.

John Bunyan, from Botley Road, took part in the annual National Powerboat Record Attempts in Lake Windermere, Lake District, where he won the one hour record after 15 years since his last race.

The 58-year-old, who holds three endurance speed records, was a last minute replacement for the booked navigator in Alan Power's Banshee craft, who travelled from Ireland for the race.

John said: "I was up there as an official for the event and I stepped in to help Alan when I heard he needed a replacement, even though I had never met him before.

"The day started cloudy and cold but the threatened rain had passed through overnight, making for pretty perfect racing conditions.

"We led the race from the start with both the engine and boat performing immaculately; we performed so well in fact that we stayed in front of the race, which included boats with bigger engines, until we stopped to refuel 70 mins into the race.

"The nearest boat in the same class was driven by Bob McCarthy, who is from Devon, and was just over an hour and a half laps behind, which meant that the one hour record for us was in the bag."

He added: "Whilst we refuelled, Bob made up the lost ground, passed and gained a half a lap lead so now the chase was on.

"Despite fatigue setting in, Alan drove like a pro, head down and nailed just about every turn.

"We managed to catch up and passed Bob 35 minutes later."

John said the pair missed out on the two hour record by two minutes due to the boat breaking down.

He added: "I heard a horrible metallic noise that every racer dreads, the power was lost and that was that.

"It was a horrible feeling especially since we had been racing for nearly two hours, but we still got the hour record.

"A post race inspection revealed that the engine had put a connecting through the side of the crankcase."

John is hoping to race again in next year's season.

The race was based in the Windermere Motorboat Racing club, near Bowness, and was held from November 9 to November 10.