WHERE most kids grow up playing with toy cars Craig Page was captivated by real ones.

Even as toddler he liked looking at the cars his dad Roy brought home from the garage he owned in Wibsey. “I was brought up around cars. We never knew what Dad might come home in - a Corvette, a Porsche or an old Ford Fiesta. From being very young I knew all the makes.”

Craig got his first set of wheels aged three. “It was a motocross bike and I was too small to touch the floor when sitting on it, so Dad made a side car to balance it - we used to put our dog in it.

“I used to like wearing my crash helmet and a tiny pair of overalls so much that I wore them to bed. My mum once found me in bed in my helmet, sweating buckets.”

As he grew up he would accompany his dad to car auctions, “I loved it. At home I would get in trouble for flattening car batteries after I’d been playing about with the switches inside the cars Dad bought.”

Alongside running the garage Roy enjoyed racing. “He started off banger racing at Sunnyvale in Shelf,” says Craig. “People would buy old cars, titivate them and race them.”

He went on to autocross, a timed competition in which drivers navigate one at a time through a course of different surfaces such as grass and Tarmac.

“My mum had a Mini Cooper and once, when she was away for the weekend, my dad raced it and won his class. Mum came back to find her car with numbers stuck on the doors and masking tape on the headlights. It was normal for my dad to do stuff like that.”

Many of the Sunnyvale racers graduated to stock car racing. Stock cars are cars that have not been altered or re-configured from their original factory build, as opposed to other race cars that have been modified and customised to perform in a certain way.

Roy became involved in stock car racing, taking Craig and his brother Adam all over the country to watch the cars in action.

In the 1970s Roy raced Formula 2 stock cars. “He liked racing on Tarmac, and picked events to take part in.”

He moved to F1 in 1980 and a year later won the World Final First Heat at Odsal Stadium in front of 30,000 people. “It was amazing - it was his first time out in his new car,” says Craig.

That year, Roy missed out on reaching the top tier of ‘red top’ stock car racing by three points.

Sadly, his racing days came to a premature end in 1984 after he broke his back in a race at Odsal, but he carried on in the sport by sponsoring other drivers, as well as building a car for a friend to race.

Far more devastating for the family, Roy died aged 52 from a heart attack. Craig was just 18.

His passion for cars did not wane and, as he built a successful career as a carpet fitter, eventually starting his own business, Wibsey-based Trade Carpet and Vinyl, he retained a keen interest in stock car racing.

When he heard that the sport was returning to Odsal through the motorsport company Startrax, after a 24-year absence, Craig knew he had to be part of it. “Friends said ‘there needs to be a Pagey on that track’”, he says. “Angela, my wife just said “Do it.”

He had some knowledge of how to handle a car at speed. “My mum taught me to drive. She raced too and taught me to heel and toe - combining the braking and gear change as one action - vital in rally driving to keep the revs upon corners.”

He took the plunge, sold a motorbike and bought an F2 stock car. “ I didn’t want to copy Dad’s colours but it has stars on the wing as Dad’s car had stars. My helmet is red, white and blue, the colours of Dad’s cars.”

Craig’s first race day was at Sheffield Stadium in June. “I had my dad in my head, saying ‘get stuck in’, but the engine was troublesome and blew up with three laps to go. Angela was watching in horror as all the smoke was billowing out.”

He was reassured by veterans of the sport, including Frank Wainman, John Lund and Andy Forrest, who had known or raced with Roy.

On July 17, Craig, 46, took to the track at Odsal. It was a very special day. “When I drove out on the track and saw the crowd it was so emotional for me,” he recalls.

Slow to start, he was hit and spun around, ending up being hit again and again oncoming cars. “I was a sitting duck, and then my car was lifted off the floor,” he says.

Although “in a rough state’” he managed to walk away, but his car was badly damaged.

“I was annoyed with myself - to have a big crash on my first lap. I wanted to get stuck in. It was so disappointing and I felt I had let people down, but that is stock car racing. The best driver in the world could be taken out on the first corner.”

He is eager to head out again, following in his dad’s tyre treads.

Remedial work is underway to repair his car and Craig plans to be back on the tracks next year.

“I already have experience of blowing up and crashing - I hope I have more luck,” he jokes, adding: “It’s an obsession - I’ll race anything with an engine. I’d race a lawnmower if I could.”

*Do you have a passion for cars? Whether your pride and joy is a shiny supercar or a battered old banger, we would love to hear from you for the T&A’s Me and My Motor feature.

Email helen.mead@nqyne.co.uk or emma.clayton@nqyne.co.uk