HURTLING around a Monza bend flat-out at 175mph and following in the tracks of racing heroes such as Senna, Mansell, Hill and Schumacher, is a dream for most motorsport fans.

But Worcester racer Tim Matthews has lived the dream and is now embarking on his second season in the European Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championships.

The 47-year-old enjoyed mixed fortunes on his Brands Hatch debut last year, qualifying an excellent 12th, but falling victim to a spinning driver while running ninth.

His spirit of adventure sees him competing again this year with his team, Tyrell Grand Prix.

Completing his team is Bewdley man, Martin Stretton, who was last year's champion.

Matthews is in a Tyrell 012, the same car driven by ITV commentator and ex-Formula One ace, Martin Brundle, in the Brazilian and Portuguese grand prix of 1985.

Any suggestion that the Thoroughbred series is a leisurely trawl into nostalgia can be dumped in the boot when you realise the car can do a mindboggling 0-150mph and back to zero in seven seconds and with adaptations for the American oval circuits could reach speeds of 220-230mph.

The cars are so sensitive that at Donnington Park the team had the less than satisfactory situation of the car pulling violently to the right at top speed on the straight.

The races are 75 miles long and last for around 45 minutes and the nine-race series features several current F1 circuits including Nurburgring, Barcelona and Monza.

Former F1 stars such as Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittapaldi have attended the races but, according to Matthews, many ex-F1 drivers are reluctant to climb back into the cars after seeing the times posted by the current drivers.

"They see how quick the drivers are racing them and compare the lap times that they were doing in their day and there is not a lot of difference.

"They are worried as ex-grand prix drivers that they might be in the situation where they would not finish in the top 10."

Unfortunately moving house has scuppered the early part of Matthews' season, but he is revving up for a start in the Czech grand prix or in the support race at the British Grand Prix. His background is in motocross, which he started as a youthful 15-year-old in the 1970s.

After university and two years teaching he was faced with a choice between his academic career or a six week stint as captain of a UK motocross team on tour in Africa.

In true Boys Own style he plumped for racing and hasn't looked back.

"It was either teach or go racing and I chose racing," he said.

"But it was hard because I was going from a regular income where things were fairly easy to relying on myself to earn a living and relying on racing to create publicity and pay the bills."

But Matthews thrived, setting up a motocross shop, obtaining support from Yamaha and setting up a moto-cross track off junction six, which his now the biggest training school in Europe.

After retiring from bikes in 1994 the competitive edge still burned strongly and he switched to four wheels and after he was invited to a German classic grand prix, the F1 bug bit.

"It was phenomenal, with 250,000 spectators over the weekend, it was a huge event and run just like a grand prix with practice on the Friday, two qualifying sessions on Saturday then a warm up and race on Sunday," he said.

"It was the opportunity to race in F1 which is the pinnacle of anybody's motorsport career."