Race driver Pete Diccox, 75, told how he survived a 100mph crash after his car flipped upside down and slid along the track.

The veteran, of Frogwell, Chippenham, horrified a packed crowd at Castle Combe Circuit on Saturday when his car turned over and skidded across the finish line with his head inches from the Tarmac.

But he walked away with just a bruised arm and 24 hours later was racing at Combe again in a borrowed car.

He said he was saved by the fact he isn’t very tall.

“It is unbelievable I got out of it,” he said. “When I stopped I got the marshals to cut the safety strap because I was struggling to breathe.

“I am only 5ft 7ins, which I think was lucky. If I was a few inches taller my head would have been dragged along the floor.”

Mr Diccox was taking part in a Formula Ford race when the incident happened.

His Van Diemen RF89 was storming around the final corner when disaster struck.

Mr Diccox, who still runs his structural engineering company Webcox, in Calne, said: “I got out of sorts and had all four wheels on the grass. The car jumped about a foot off the ground.

“When it came back down I think I must have hit the edge of the concrete on the track and it threw it over.”

The car then scraped along the tarmac, sending sparks flying in the air, before crossing the finish line.

Mr Diccox’s wife Rita, whom he has been married to for almost 50 years, was watching the events unfold from the stands.

While she may have been worried for his safety, that was the furthest thing from Mr Diccox’s mind.

He said: “When it flipped I was just thinking ‘blimey, this is going to cost me a bit of money’.”

He escaped with just a bruise on his arm and a story to tell – and a bill for up to £5,000 to repair the car.

It was not the first time Mr Diccox has been involved in a heavy crash in his 20 years on the circuit, with several incidents including one at Silverstone some years ago.

Racing clearly runs in his family, too, as his grandson is up-and-coming motocross star Jamie Skuse.

Rather than lick his wounds after Saturdays crash, Mr Diccox was back in the seat of a rented car for another race on Sunday at the same venue.

He said: “Other people at the track were worried and I think the wife probably was as well - she bought me a new crash helmet afterwards.

“But I just forgot about it and got back on the horse. I am that type of bloke.”