WHEEL-TO-WHEEL action and speeds of more than 100 miles per hour – it is not your typical hobby for a 15-year-old schoolboy.

Kyle Nisbet is flying the flag for Scotland in the Junior Saloon Car Championship, with the final meeting of the season expected to attract 30,000 people.

The teenager sits fifth in the standings after 16 gripping races, with a trip to Brands Hatch, near Maidstone, next month.

Nisbet said: “We race in Citroen Saxos with 1.6-litre engines.

“I race all around the UK so that includes tracks like Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Knockhill – everywhere you can think of, I have been to race on it.

“The Junior Saloon Car Championship is for young drivers to accomplish their dreams and become a racing driver at a young age.

“It is pretty exciting and you are able to race at the big tracks that are raced on by lots of famous people. The atmosphere of everything is so great.”

Twenty cars line up on the grid at each of the meetings, with drivers aged between 14 and 17.

Despite many of the teenagers not boasting a driving licence, the action is still fast-paced and exciting.

Racers ventured to Cadwell Park, east of Lincoln, last weekend.

Friday saw the rivals take part in testing before practice and qualifying on the Saturday and two races on the Sunday.

Nisbet, who is in S5 at Preston Lodge High School, came home with two third places and a fastest lap to narrow the gap in the overall championship standings to just five points on fourth-placed Owen Hizzey.

Nisbet said: “I love the physical side of it.

“You are so up close in the cars and there are points where you are touching mirrors with another car as you go round a corner at high speed.”

Now, attention turns to the final two-race meeting of the season at Brands Hatch.

The circuit holds a variety of racing disciplines, ranging from the British Superbike Championship to the British Touring Car Championship, and was previously the home of the British Grand Prix in Formula One, with winners including Formula One world champions in Nigel Mansell, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet.

Next month, it will host a special truck racing and fireworks event alongside the final round of the championship, with a crowd of 30,000 expected.

Nisbet, who is the only Scottish racer among the championship, said: “It is a good circuit with quite a few challenges.

“Although it is a small track, it is still quite tricky. You have got a big steep hill at the first corner and I have raced there before.”

The teenager, who stays in Port Seton, has been racing since he was just eight years old in various different categories, including karts at Raceland, near Macmerry.

Now he is in his second year in the Junior Saloon Car Championship and is regularly joined at the race meetings by mum and dad Marie and Marc.

He told Courier Sport how the racing would not be possible without his sponsors, with a number of logos on his black and green Citroen Saxo.