When Nicholas Narraway takes to the Rubis Southside Raceway tomorrow, he is ensuring that his family’s racing tradition continues.

He follows his dad John, who took part in Formula 2000, and grandfather, who was involved in Club Racing.

Now, with his dad backing him up in the pit lane, the Saltus student is quickly learning about the sport on and off the track in the TAG Junior class.

It’s a tight-knit, father-son operation that refuses to cower in the face of drivers on factory teams with a number of mechanics at their disposal.

It is a challenge that John says requires some “pragmatic” thinking regarding repairs and budget, but racing is clearly in his son’s blood.

“I love the speed and being able to be by yourself,” he said. “You can be yourself. You don’t have to listen to anyone else!”

Inspired by watching the Hamilton Grand Prix, he convinced his dad to let him try it out and, after graduating from the rental karts, he’s now in his second year in the class.

“I’ve learnt how to push it to the limit, and how to deal with the tyres ... what’s too fast for them,” he said.

“You have to hold your line and not back down.” He added: “I’m hooked.”

Armed with new tyres, he believes this is the weekend he finally gets one over his arch rival, fellow TAG Junior driver Ryan Burgess.

“I’m close,” he said. “Not even half a second. Hopefully, I’ll beat him this weekend.

“It’s hard competing with a big team. It’s just me and my dad against them.

“He’s on a team that gets new tyres [regularly] and has mechanics the whole time, so it’s hard.”

Despite the uphill battle, it is clear that Nicholas, who also cycles and competes in mountain bikes and road racing, is having too much of a good time to even think about quitting.

“My last crash was at Dockyard,” he said. “I went too fast around the corner and clipped the barrier and got thrown out. Just bruises. I just got back in — it was too much fun to back out.”

His dad believes being part of a small team is actually beneficial to his son’s development, not just as a driver but as a person.

“His hands are dirtier than mine at the end of the weekend,” he said.

“I think it’s a very positive thing for young people to get involved with. There’s the whole troubleshooting side of it — how does he process how things are all connected and, as a consequence, how can we go faster.

“It’s a different life skill. It isn’t just the driving, it’s the problem solving.

“It’s good to see that he’d rather get his hands dirty on an engine than, play video games, for example.

He added: “It’s nickel and dime racing! A lot of the teams are factory teams but we’re independent and found our own sponsors.

“It’s like, you know what, we’re going to make this work. It’s just a father-and-son type deal.

“Within the first year we were in contention against a guy at a factory team with proper mechanics.”

“We look at in a very pragmatic way. You do an entire weekend and nothing breaks, that’s a good weekend!”

n Nicholas would like to say a thank-you to Kenny, from Gear and Gadgets, and Lucozade, who have been his sponsor for two years.