OLD Kilpatrick racer Rob Kerr admits he’s expecting a baptism of fire as he prepares for the toughest challenge of his motorsport career so far.

Kerr will take part in the Citroen C1 Challenge series’ 24-hour endurance race at the Rockingham Motor Speedway circuit in Northamptonshire on September 1 and 2 – his first ever experience of long-distance, through-the-night competition.

The C1 Racing Club’s event will be a far cry from the short sprint races he took part in for two years at the wheel of a nippy 1986 XR2 in the Ford Fiesta Championship run by the Scottish Motor Racing Club (SMRC).

Kerr, a self-confessed adrenaline junkie who runs a wedding and executive car hire business when he’s not on track, had no competitive motorsport experience before he took to the Knockhill circuit in Fife for his first XR2 race in May 2016.

But despite going into next weekend’s 24-hour event having never taken part in an endurance race before, far less one that’s 24 hours long, Kerr says he’s more worried about his lack of experience in the car he’s going to be driving.

“I have no experience of 24-hour racing at all,” he said. “But the fact I’ve never driven a Citroen C1 is the most terrifying thing for me.

“The C1 and the XR2 are both small front wheel drive cars, but endurance racing is totally different to the 20-minute sprints I was taking part in until last year – longer races mean you need much more concentration.

“There will be be more than 200 drivers racing 54 cars – that’s a hefty number of cars and an awful lot of potential chaos.

“But if nothing else it’ll open my eyes to a totally different kind of racing from what I’m used to – and that’s the reason I’m doing it.”

Kerr won the XR2 Newcomers’ Cup in his second year in the SMRC championship, finishing third overall in the XR2 standings.

But after spending almost all of his short motorsport career so far racing his Fiesta around the Knockhill circuit, he decided during the winter off-season that the time was right to try something new.

“I wanted to move on to bigger and better things,” he said. “I’m not competing in a championship as such this year.”