ECO-FRIENDLY cars of the future have been given a test drive around a real race track.

The electric cars were designed and created by secondary school children from around the country who are competing in the Ford Greenpower Electric Car Marathon Challenge.

Yesterday, the cars were given a run around the Croft motor racing circuit, near Darlington.

The competition is being run to encourage young people to become involved in engineering and yesterday's heat was the first in the country.

As well as finding out more about practical engineering, the challenge encourages the use of environmentally-friendly means of transport.

Schools throughout the country were sent the basic equipment they needed to build their own car.

Pupils received a motor, a set of batteries and the rules and were instructed to design and build their electric car ready for yesterday's six-hour race.

The competitors were hoping to better last year's winner, called the Equipe Bigenor, which was built by a group of GCSE students from West Sussex.

Their car travelled 158 miles at an average speed of 26mph using only the power of a 240-watt electric motor.

A spokeswoman for the event said: "In order to address the country's shortage of engineers, the competition hopes to stimulate interest as well as a theoretical and practical understanding of technology amongst young people, to promote engineering as an exciting career."

Yesterday's winning car was The Farnley Flyer, which was created by children from Farnley Park High School, in Leeds.

Second and third place were won by teams from Cambridge Secondary Support KS4 and fourth were Bradford Girls' Grammar School. All four go into the final.

Other schools involved included Ampleforth College, near Helmsley, and King James, in Knaresborough, both North Yorkshire.