THE spirit of Pamela Anderson and her iconic lifeguard gear is the inspiration behind a Basingstoke quartet’s quest to compete at the Red Bull Soapbox Race in which amateurs drive homemade soapbox vehicles.

Former John Hunt of Everest School friends Josh Craven, Scott Waissen, Chris Grant and Adam Berry have been selected to race their ‘The Pamela’ speedboat car at London’s Alexandra Palace against 70 other drivers in July.

The lads, who will build the car from scratch, entered the contest to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and fulfill a long-held ambition of competing in the race for captain Josh.

More than 10,000 people applied to enter the race and, on the back of their unique design, the team will take to the streets looking to survive an often brutal race.

Josh said: “I’ve done some fundraising before but to be honest this race is a bit of selfish ambition to stick us lot in a car and see what happens.

“I don’t think anybody expects to win, but we’ll just have a go. It’s a bit of fun and is not going to cost anything.

“I think we’ve got the perfect team. Me, I’m a good captain. Scotty is good at the promotions. Berry has got all the equipment and Chris is a brilliant driver and has built a car before.

“None of us have done anything like this before. I’m in charge of the brakes but I’m hoping we don’t need them.”

It is hoped the mates’ car will be ready within the next couple of weeks. But the design of the speedboat which will go on top is still being figured out.

“It’s going to be a heavy car and shall we say robust,” Josh said.

“I think you get chosen to enter the race either because you’ve got a brilliant car or they expect that you are going to crash. It’s fair to say we’re in the latter.”

Josh added: “If we can just finish the race with everyone having a good day out, we’re sorted.”

Scott said: "Let's bring the cup home for Basingstoke. If everyone of the 120,000 people in Basingstoke voted for us and gave a pound, we would smash our targets.

"Thank you to everyone for your support in advance. It's free to vote and if you could all share it that would be great. Let's have it."

‘The Pamela’ is up for the People’s Choice Award at this year’s event.

On Sunday 9th July, the teams will once again put their homemade vehicles to the test at the sold out race at Alexandra Palace.

Don’t have a ticket? Tune into Dave on Sunday 9th July to catch all the action from 5-8pm.

People can vote for the team by clicking here.

And to support the lads’ charity push click here.