Middlesex karting star Mackenzie Taylor joined a star-studded line-up at the world’s biggest motor racing show – Autosport International – at Birmingham’s NEC, last Friday.

The 15-year-old from Ashford was making his third appearance in the televised race that has become a highlight of the annual event, after being invited to join a team representing leading weekly motor racing newspaper, Motorsport News.

The two-hour endurance race attracted 16 teams, consisting of established and up-and-coming drivers from motorsports various disciplines, members of the public - who had paid £300 each for the privilege of going wheel to wheel with their heroes - and a team of glamour models, appropriately named ‘Bangers and Crash.’ Despite starting from 13th on the grid, Mackenzie’s team began to move into contention and his ability to scythe through traffic quickly took them into 2nd place. Sadly, this was short-lived after the race was forced into a momentary stoppage after one of the Bangers and Crash girls demolished a section of the barriers after a spin.

A further halt to the race followed just minutes later, after several clashes between famous touring car and single-seater drivers left the race resembling a bar-room brawl with karts. After a rollicking from the organisers, the drivers sheepishly climbed back into their karts and promptly began knocking each other around the track again.

After two hours of relentless action, Mackenzie’s team eventually took the chequered flag in 6th place.

“That was good fun but quite hectic” the Sunbury Manor pupil said with some understatement, before adding “I overtook 10 karts in just one corner, it was that crazy!”

“I enjoyed myself and it was a privilege to be able to race some huge names from motor racing and take on rising stars. Whilst we didn’t quite get the result we wanted, we contributed to raising nearly £50, 000 for the Richard Burns Foundation (Burns was a world champion rally driver who succumbed to brain cancer in 2005), the Christie Cancer Hospital in Manchester and Emmaus Hampshire (which supports the homeless) and we can all be very proud of that.”

Mackenzie returns to action when the prestigious Winning Series Karting championship kicks off at the fabulous La Conca circuit in Puglia, southern Italy on February 8.