FOLLOWING in the footsteps of Clarke, Senna, and Schumacher, I decide to walk the circuit ahead of the grand prix.

But it is not the fastest line into Monaco’s Casino Square that is occupying my thoughts. Nor am I staring the length of Silverstone’s Hangar Straight with an eye to the best entry into Stowe corner.

Ringwood may lack the glamour of the Cote D’Azure, or the racing heritage of the famed Northamptonshire airfield, but for me has taken on the daunting aspect of the world’s best-known theatres of four-wheeled combat.

My guide around the town’s narrow streets is Cliff Polton, race director of the British Pedal Car Grand Prix, and one of the circuit’s designers.

The lap gets off to a bumpy start outside Finn’s at Ringwood, before heading around the Jubilee Lamp island at into the Magna Mazda Hairpin. This section of the race will be "absolute mayhem" on race day, Cliff assures me, with evident and unnerving glee.

The High Street will be renamed for the event; divided between the Daily Echo Straight and the Pampered Pets Mile. Barriers will line the thoroughfare on July 13, says Cliff, holding back the 10,000 spectators expected in the town on July 13.

A sharp left-hand bend at the Naughty Corner gift shop will take the competitors along the Zizzi Straight – named in honour of the Italian restaurant on Southampton Road.

Another sharp, left turn and the pedallers enter Meeting House Lane via the Ellis Jones Corner and the tricky Wave 105 Hairpin.

"Burly marshals" will police the Arcade Flowers chicane, Cliff promises. Hay bales will reduce the width of the road by half in a bid to protect spectators crossing the road in front to the Tourist Information Centre.

Anyone gripped by the spirit of Senna and tempted to make a move through the chicane will be penalised one lap, warns the race director.

The Waitrose Hairpin leads to the fastest section of the circuit as cars plunge down the narrowest section of Meeting House Lane, and back into the Market Place.

Race organiser, James Stride, meets us beneath the Jubilee Lamp with glowing reports of the progress made by his colleagues on the committee.

Nearly £11,000 has been raised already from programme sponsorship, putting the organisers ahead of the £10,000 target for the Tenovus cancer charity and Lymington’s Oakhaven hospice.

The programme is due to hit the streets of Ringwood on July 5, with many local shops signed up as vendors.