As the region prepares to host the British Touring Car Championship later this month, self-confessed “potterer” Jim Entwistle takes some lessons on speed from the championship’s 2008 winner Fabrizio Giovanardi.

DON’T get me wrong. The thought of driving really fast has always been appealing. But if, like me, you own a car with a one-litre engine, you’ll know that there’s no real fun in motoring. Overtaking is dangerous in a vehicle so miserably weak, so instead I have taken to pottering. I’ve become an A to B man.

I think my apathy towards motoring stems from my struggle to pass my test when I was 17. On the day of my second test, I vividly remember the examiner, Frank, interrupting me during a blundering attempt at a reverse parking manoeuvre. Scrawling an ominous “X” in his notepad, he told me to “drive on”. Ignoring my pleas for a second chance, Frank reiterated his foreboding command. “Drive on,” he said. I was crest-fallen, but worse still was having to recount the whole episode to the sixthform common room on my return to school.

I finally passed my test fours years later, but during that passage of time between my second and third tests, my youthful urge to hit the open road died and I no longer had the need for speed.

Yesterday then, it was with no little unease that I agreed to have a drive around Croft Circuit with Fabrizio Giovanardi, the reigning British Touring Car Champion.

It would be a good chance to speak with him ahead of the touring cars’ return to Croft on June 13 and 14, I thought. The problem was that I was expected to drive, and you can’t just tootle round the track when your passenger is one of the world’s fastest men. Male pride dictates that you have to at least attempt to compete with him and that you are indeed worthy of sharing his vehicle.

Before it was my turn to drive, Fabrizio took me for a couple of laps of the track to show me how it was done. Driving a Vauxhall Corsa VXR, capable of 140mph, Fabrizio told me to become part of the car, that I had to guide it round the course, not force it, and that I must steer gently and smoothly when cornering. I ask him what happens if you don’t steer smoothly. As we approach the Barcroft corner, at a speed in excess of 80mph, he shows me exactly what happens when you steer too sharply and the car bucks around the track like a wild horse. He laughs, it’s under control, he assures me.

After seeing what the champion could do, it was my turn to take the wheel. Casting off the shackles of years of under-powered cars, I sat behind the wheel and planned my strategy for tackling the 2.1 miles of Croft Circuit. Fabrizio had made the job look so easy, and I was quietly confident I would make him proud.

But any delusions of talent were shattered within seconds however, because before even leaving the pit lane, I stalled the car. A bad start, and it got worse about half way around the track when Fabrizio, a tough master, rebuked me for my sloppy driving style. “You drive it like you drive a bus,” he said, tapping me on the left hand which had once again come to rest on the gearstick. “You cannot control the car with one hand,” he adds.

A COUPLE of laps and an attitude readjustment later, my speeds began to increase.

Fabrizio may have been yawning, but I was getting into it. The corners became more familiar, the gear changes a little smoother. In my mind at least, I was no longer a bus driver. I knew what to expect from the course. Halfway round my final lap and I started to believe I was actually making my codriver sit up and take notice. I zipped off the apex, found the right line to speed away from the hairpin and crossed the finish line, fist clenched. But Fabrizio wasn’t impressed.

“That was awful,” he says, as I guide the car back into the pit lane.

Looking back on the video of my lap, he was right. I was pathetically slow. During his session, Fabrizio was generally going at least 30mph faster than me, and that was while giving me a lesson in driving, not really looking at the track.

“You are a beginner, you were absolutely out of the game,” he says, in assessment of my performance.

“You don’t know the circuits, or the cars so it’s quite usual, even for us.

So, after several white knuckle laps and expert tuition, what’s his verdict?

“Obviously, you have no experience of racing," he says, shaking his head sadly.

Fabrizio sounds quite brutal, but he does with the style one would expect of an Italian racing driver, so I came away feeling rather privileged at being told what a bad driver I was.

But despite my woeful attempts, yesterday’s experience reawakened something within me I thought was lost that moment seven years ago when examiner Frank delivered those two immortal words – “drive on”. The VW Polo 1.0 is up for sale – I’ve got the driving bug.

■ Fabrizio Giovanardi and The British Touring Car Championship will be at Croft Circuit on Saturday and Sunday, June 13 and 14. Tickets cost £12 for adults on Saturday, and £23 for adults on Sunday. Children under 15-years-old go free. For more information visit croft circuit.co.uk or call 01325-721815.