YOUNG Tom Boardman experienced some of motorsport's deepest lows at the weekend when he came away from rounds 17 and 18 of the www.theAA.com British Touring Car Championship at Croft with just a couple of hundred yards of racing under his belt.

Boardman, from Forton, started the race weekend in North Yorkshire in high spirits, confident that his team, which is run by his father John, had fixed a long-running fuel system problem.

An encouraging qualifying session saw Boardman, who at 17 years old is the youngest ever BTCC driver, secure 11th place on the grid, despite the fuel system glitch making one last unwelcome appearance.

An excellent start to the Sprint Race (Round 17) put Boardman in the thick of things going into the first corner, but unfortunately contact with another car then put his Peugeot 306 GTi6 BTC Production car off the road and out of the race.

"I'm really gutted about it," admitted Boardman later as the team pulled out all the stops to repair extensive damage to the right hand side of the car in time for the Feature Race (Round 18). "I made a good start and was looking to improve my position as early as possible in the race.

"Unfortunately, several of us when into the first corner at the same time and I was the one that didn't get through the corner! I'm not entirely sure what happened, but the car was a bit of a mess."

All appeared to be in order as the competitors were called out for the start of the 30-lap Feature but, as the talented teenager tried to line up on the grid, the CV joint on the left hand side of the car failed, having suffered damage in the earlier incident that was not initially apparent.

"It's a huge disappointment," he said. "But we'll re-group and come back stronger for the next rounds at Oulton Park. I had my best result of the season there earlier in the year, and I'm determined to put Croft behind me and go even better this time.

"I had a lot of support from the crowd at Oulton last time and I hope they all turn out to cheer me on again.

"It's my local track and I want to get a good result as well as stop this run of bad luck I'm having at the moment."