Aberdeenshire duo secure gold in Peking to Paris vintage car race

An Aberdeenshire duo are celebrating their 1st place finish in the Peking to Paris vintage car race whilst raising money for Cash For Kids.

Andy Buchan, from Hatton of Fintray, and navigator Mike Sinclair from Balmedie, started their journey at the Great Wall of China with the finish line over 14,000km away in France's capital.

Over 36 days, they journeyed through the desert in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Italy and Spain in Andy's 1928 open-top Bentley named Crunchie.

"The whole thing was very very intense." Andy said.

The duo were trailing the lead by day 34 with a minute's gap behind the leaders.

"We were probably about a minute behind and a minute is a lot of time to make up. It doesn't sound like very much but in the competitions where you are battling away for seconds, a minute is a bit."

It wasn't until Andy and Mike's opponents leading the race hit a mechanical problem that they were able to overtake into first place.

By the time they had reached the finish line, the pair had extended their lead time by nine and a half minutes.

"I'll never forget that moment"

Andy was met in Paris with a surprise as friends had flown over from America to cheer him on alongside his family.

Asked what it felt like to cross the finish line he said: "I'll never forget that moment."

Even though Crunchie the Bentley has an additional 15,000km under its belt, Andy believes it could do it all over again.

He continued: "We drove home to Scotland after finishing in Paris.

"I could put another set of tyres on that car and turn round and drive back to Peking.

"She did a fantastic job. We had a bit of nursing through some of the stages, it was so rough.

"Particularly Kazahkstan - I keep rattling on about it - it was so rough. There was so many cars that took a pounding, there were so many failures, there was some fairly severe damage done to cars but Crunchie, my Bentley, did a great job."

Despite the beautiful scenery along the route, Andy said it was the people he met during the challenge that made the trip special.

Almost £3,000 raised for Cash for Kids

Andy has been fundraising for Cash For Kids for over 25 years and said he is "delighted" with how much they have raised for the charity.

He continued: "It's a great charity and we fully support the work that they're doing.

"It's just nice to have been able to do something on my bucket list whilst also helping Cash For Kids."

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