BRITAIN'S youngest-ever touring car racer, Forton's Tom Boardman, heads to the country's fastest circuit this Bank Holiday weekend looking to tame the track that likes to bite back.

Thruxton, in Hampshire, hosts rounds three and four of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) on Monday.

It is famous for its flat-out and frightening Church Corner, where cars turn in at 125mph-plus, but this holds no fear for Boardman, 17, who became the youngest driver in the series at Brands Hatch during Easter.

Now his learning curve is at its steepest as he takes on Thruxton, known as a tyre-shredder and a place he has never raced at before.

Boardman said: "You have to be nothing but brave at Thruxton. It's so quick and in some parts you feel as though you are just holding the car on the limit of its grip.

"But I like it, it's nice and fast. It's what being a racing driver is all about and it doesn't worry me at all."

"Church corner is the fastest we will go through all season. It's a tricky right-hander that if you don't get your line right you'll go off and make a bit of a mess!

"The corner's hard on the tyres because of the loading they suffer and the surface of the circuit is also very abrasive so tyre wear is a big problem and you have to try to drive so you protect the tyres for as long as possible."

Round Four on Monday, the day's Feature Race, is double the length of Round Three (the Sprint Race) so Boardman may find himself in the unusual position of having to make a pit-stop, something he's never done in his entire racing career.

Again, that doesn't shake the talented teenager: "If we've got to make a pit-stop then we'll do it. It's just another part of racing that I'll have to get used to.

"Mind you, it's the team that has to do all the work, I'll just be sitting in the car waiting for them to change the wheels."

Boardman, in a Peugeot 306 GTI-6prepared by a team run by his father John, was 20th quickest at a recent test session at the Hampshire circuit.

Gearbox problems hampered his progress that day but he believes he will improve over the course of this weekend.

He says: "We've fixed the problem with the car and every time you go out onto a track you get quicker as you learn more about it, so I'll be looking for a top ten finish on Monday at the very least. I proved I can mix it with the more experienced drivers at Brands Hatch and I just want to keep up that form!"