From the age of 11 years old, youngsters can experience the thrill of racing in a MiniRod car here at Mendips Raceway.

This is a great way for young people to enter Oval racing.

Many of them help prepare the cars (and repair them!) – makes some of them think twice before going for a gap that really isn’t there!

The cars are standard 1000cc Mini saloons, stripped out but mechanically standard in all respects. A roll cage is fitted, along with a good safe racing seat and full safety harness to ensure that the young drivers come to no harm.

Drivers have to retire at their sixteenth birthday and transfer to adult formulae.

Whist becoming scarcer, you can usually pick up a pre-prepared vehicle from a retiring youngster for £300-£500 and race at six meetings each year on a few hundred pounds just so long as they avoid the Armco barriers!