Know the drill and win a car!

May 11 2010 by Andy Newport, Paisley Daily Express

DUELLING joiners will be battling it out for the chance to win a luxury £120,000 Aston Martin car.

They’ll be taking part in the local heat of a national competition to find the fastest tradesman in the West.

The Irwin Tools Ultimate Tradesman Challenge heat – with the prize of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage for the national winner – is taking place, at Kelvin Power Tools in Hillington, Renfrewshire, on Friday, May 21, between 9am and 8pm and on Saturday, May 22, between 9am and 2pm.

The competition is for tradesmen to race each other in measuring, marking, sawing, clamping and drilling a piece of wood, to fit accurately over a template using Irwin tools.

The winner of the Hillington heat gets £600 worth of tools and the chance to compete in the national final for the Aston Martin at the Interbuild exhibition, at the Birmingham NEC, in October.

Kelvin Power Tools boss, John Breslin is urging joiners – or anyone with woodwork or carpentry skills – to prove they are up to the challenge of proving they are the fastest on the saw.

He said: “We’re expecting lots of workmen and women to take part in this exciting contest to find who is the West of Scotland’s lightning fast, tool-wielding Titan.

“So, if you think you are good enough to win that amazing Aston Martin Vantage, come along to Kelvin Power Tools and take part in the challenge.

“Who knows, someone from the West of Scotland could end up driving away at the wheel of a fantastic new motor.”

Last year’s winner of the Irwin Ultimate Tradesman Challenge was kitchen fitter and joiner, Rob Guyll, from North Yorkshire. He won a Porsche 911 sports car by completing the woodwork task in only 28.99 seconds.

John added: “The exhibition hall was crammed with people watching the final last year and it was really exciting.

“We’ll have some of the same excitement in Hillington when we find the person from our heat who is going to the national finals.”

As well as the main heats at Kelvin Power Tools, on May 21 and 22, they are also staging heats to find the fastest apprentice tradesman from Reid Kerr College in Paisley.

The apprentices will be battling it out to reach the national final and lift the top prize of £10,000 at the Toolfair Sandown exhibition, in London, in November.

Paul Jakeway, Trade Marketing Manager at Irwin, said: “We are keen to see what tradesmen are capable of.

“The first Ultimate Tradesman Challenge was a great success and really captured the imagination of the industry.

“Not only will we be giving away more prizes than before, but we’ll be using some of our brand new and most innovative tools, so those people that really honed their skills in last year’s challenge won’t necessarily have an advantage when battling for the amazing Aston Martin V8 Vantage.”

To enter the challenge log on to www.kelvinpowertools.com or simply turn up to register at the event, at Kelvin Power Tools Showroom, Kelvin Avenue, Hillington.

And to see exactly what you have to do to take part, log on to www.irwinchallenge.co.uk

To make the challenge more of an event, Kelvin Power Tools has also organised a Friday evening beer and hog roast; breakfast rolls and lunch with light refreshments along with indoor and outdoor hands-on demonstrations as part of a two-day trade show. There will also be a series of other prize-wining challenges from tool manufacturers.