The days of Take on Tim are dead, long live seeing a great chance for fun and grabbing it. But sports editor TIM ASHTON had his hands full with this one ...

BEING told you are going to be driven around Brands Hatch by a racing driver of many years experience is exciting.

Discovering he has the dubious distinction of being one of the few to cross the circuit's finishing line while cartwheeling at more than 100mph is more terrifying than exciting.

But I had been the superhero of Take on Tim. I've walked on fire and jumped out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet there was no need to be scared.

To be honest, any trepidation I had began to vanish the moment I arrived at Brands and heard the cars roaring round the track.

By the time I was in the pits with the taste of petrol and oil seeping in through every pore, it had disappeared.

You see, getting most men within spitting distance of a fast car and a pit lane garage is enough to make the need for women obsolete (maybe not quite).

Walking through the Brands Hatch pit area is like a slow regression to playing with Matchbox cars and by the time I came upon my driver Eric Falce, and his protege Craig, I was hyperventilating with childlike excitement.

Eric, 66, is a mild-mannered, grandfather-type character who is likely to have Werthers Originals in his pocket next to his spanner.

He approaches motor racing with calm authority and teaches Craig with nowt more than a nod of the head.

Eric said: "I raced in the sixties and was on the first rung of a serious racing career ladder.

"But then I crashed at Brands Hatch while driving a Jaguar Type 3 with a V8 engine and broke three vertebrae in my back.

"While recuperating I met my wife and left racing."

Footage of the crash can be seen at ericfalce.co.uk and it takes your breath away.

Eric, who lives on Main Road, St Paul's Cray, worked in the shipping, trucking and logging industries before being a mechanic at EPF Autoservices, Nelson Road, Sidcup.

He said: "I returned to racing on my 60th birthday when colleagues bought me a crash helmet.

"I had been working on a car which was due to be transported to the USA but in the end it stayed here.

"When I was given the crash helmet I took the car for a spin.

"I was bitten by the bug again and now, although I am in championships, I race just for the fun of it."

I met Eric while he was testing his Mark 1 Ford/Lotus Escort in preparation for the British Automobile Racing Club Southern Saloon Track Race Car Series.

Before I knew it, I was in my bright red overalls, pulling on a shiny white helmet and climbing into the passenger seat.

If you have never sat in a car stripped out and modified for racing then I highly recommend it.

Without the luxuries it is like sitting in metal eggshell attached to the engine of a Boeing 747.

Eric took us slowly up the pit lane just like the hundreds of famous drivers who had done the same and as we waited for the stewards to allow us on to the track, the car's monster engine purred like a slumbering tyrannosaurus rex.

Eric said he would take the opening laps gently so I could get used to what to expect but when we got the all clear and he put the pedal to the metal all hell broke loose.

The noise was deafening as he worked through the gears and plunged the car into the Paddock Hill Bend and up Hailwood Hill.

Taking Druids corner was an experience but nothing like Graham Hill corner where the car mounted the red and white rumble strips before roaring off.

I pictured Michael Schumacher doing the same it was great. Then came the moment when Eric took Clark Curve and headed for the home straight the very spot where he had crashed all those years before but I need not have worried that he would be extra cautious, in fact he sped up to storm past the pit lanes.

After a couple more laps Eric really put his foot down and my thrill at being thrown around in the passenger seat as we took corners in excess of 80mph was unashamedly childlike.

Even more exciting was, because it was a track day, there were dozens of other cars on the circuit meaning over-taking was in abundance.

At one point I think Eric almost touched bumper to bumper with someone while doing 60mph on a tight bend it was great stuff.

When we finally pulled back into the pits I was disappointed it was all over and made Eric promise that next time he was out on the track he would take me with him.

The drive back along the straights of the A20 was decidedly mundane.