SOUTHAMPTON'S Matthew Nutley has come through a nationwide competition to win a fully-funded drive in Silverstone's BRDC Single-Seater Championship.

The 24-year-old car valet fought off all-comers in a tense shoot-out at Croft to win the BeARacingdriver Scholarship final.

Yet before the competition began last year, he had never raced on a circuit!

He came through a series of tough tests which whittled down an original entry of 350 drivers to just 40 for the pre-final stages at Teesside Autodrome. And out of the 40, 36 had managed to lap within 1.2 seconds of the fastest time.

The last dozen drivers were given 15-minute assessment sessions with former BTCC racer John Bintcliffe and in between sessions, finalists had to tackle interviews with BBC TV, Motorsport News and the scholarship judging panel.

Nutley's prize for winning is a fully-funded season in Silverstone-run BTDC Single-Seater Championship. He will now begin testing his 130mph car ahead of the first round next month.

Thruxton's programme for 2005 opens up with a gaggle of excellent national racing championships on Easter Monday.

Over 60 Caterhams will be contesting the opening races for the bookatrack.com Caterham Graduate Championship, which now has more than 100 registered competitors.

Two more excellent fields will tackle the opening races for the Lancaster Insurance MG Owners' Club Championship featuring locals Paul Naish, Richard Martin and Richard Waterman.

Maintaining the theme of strong grids is the opening round of the Ibis Packaging Solutions Classic Group One Touring Car Championship followed by the York Fitness Post Historic Touring Car Championship for pre '74 cars.

A gloriously varied field will line up for the Waxoyl Classic Thunder Touring Car Championship and concluding the programme is a race including the Toyo Tyres Modified Production Saloon Championship and the CTCRC Classic Saloon/Historic Touring Car Series.

Qualifying starts at 9am, with the first of nine races at 1.30pm. Admission is £10, children free, paddock free and grandstands extra.

Good Friday offers the one opportunity in the year to view National Hot Rods at Matchams Park.

Both they and the British Stock Car Association Formula Two Stock Cars each contest a World Championship qualifying round at the Ringwood track.

Also on the programme is the Hampshire Championship for Saloon Stock Cars as well a Vintage Stock Cars event. Racing starts at 2pm.