Episode 1: Davy McGovern, our first contestant, takes to the track. Click here to see how he performed

Episode 2: Nicola Boyd, our first female reader to enter Hot Laps jumps inside the N24

Davy McGovern, our first contestant, takes to the track. Click here to see how he performed

Click here to enter the competition

Click here to see the times recorded by our racing drivers

It’s a cold blustery morning at Bedford Autodrome and two former Formula One racing drivers are stripping off their day clothes and zipping themselves into racing suits. One is 48, the other is 51, and they are complaining, as middle-aged men privately do, about stiff joints and sagging midriffs. Next to them, enjoying the show, are their two 17-year-old sons, full of energy and itching to see their fathers do battle behind the wheels of the racing green Aston Martin N24s parked nose to nose in the pit lane.

For Martin Brundle and Jonathan Palmer this is an opportunity to rekindle a rivalry that dates not just from their days as F1 drivers in competing teams, but from their secondary careers as F1 commentators for rival TV channels. Brundle succeeded Palmer behind the microphone when coverage moved from BBC to ITV in 1997, and Palmer can’t help having a dig over the fact that the BBC has just got the broadcasting rights back again.

There’s not much time for banter, though, because the track has been cleared for the first race in The Sunday Times Hot Lap League.

The plan is to offer readers the chance to compete in a unique challenge. Each month two winners will be chosen and invited, after a period of instruction, to complete a timed lap of the 1.7mile west circuit of the autodrome in one of the Astons. Their efforts will be filmed by an onboard camera and posted on Times Online so they (and other readers) can watch their moment of triumph or disaster.

By the end of the summer we will have a full league table of competitors and be ready to crown one driver king of the Hot Lap challenge. Aston Martin has offered the overall winner the prize of a V8 Vantage to drive for a month.

Brundle and Palmer, and Alex and Jolyon, their respective sons – both of whom are enjoying early success in their own racing careers – are kicking off the league. The sons are going to race first. As well as giving individual times, we plan to compile the results two ways: first by pooling the lap times for each family, to see who is fastest – the Brundles or the Palmers; then by comparing fathers jointly with sons. “My time around the west circuit has slowed down by about a second a year for the past 10 years so I reckon Jolyon will be quicker than me – just,” said Palmer.

For the first, tyre-smoking laps, Jolyon and Alex are neck and neck, their times very close at around 1min 27sec. The cars screech through a new chicane that has been added to the circuit to make it more challenging. It has put several seconds on the lap time since an unmodified Aston Martin V8 Vantage managed a scorching 1min 26.75sec in 2005.

The cars cling on miraculously through the hairpins that make the circuit one of the most testing – though still one of the safest – of its kind. The duel was interrupted only when Alex’s car pulled into the pits. The brake pedal had “gone long”, he reported. In touring car racing you can put the brakes only through so much punishment before they overheat, begin to fade and need to cool off.

A suitable moment for Brundle and Palmer Sr to slip on their racing gloves and helmets in preparation for the main feature. As the two men strap themselves with five-point harnesses into the Recaro seats there is no sign that their advancing years has dimmed their abrasive instincts. Few people in the world are more innately competitive than F1 drivers.

It takes ferocious determination, as well as talent, to drive a grand prix, and Brundle and Palmer contested about 250 between them – many in direct competition. Small wonder both have gone on to forge successful careers out of the car.

Put them both back in their racing overalls, take them to a track, seat them in one of the most exciting and powerful new race cars around – the new V8 Vantage N24 is a fully fledged racing machine named after the Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race – and watch them burn the place up in their desperation to come out on top. What better way to set a benchmark for the challengers in the Sunday Times competition to measure themselves against?

The cars were set up just as they will be for the competitors – an instructor alongside, and antilock braking and traction control activated. On the start line, you could almost hear Murray Walker’s urgent commentary ringing out as the starter counted down: “Three, two, one, and they’re off . . .” It soon became apparent that even though the fathers had instructed their sons not to damage the £100,000 cars, they were throwing their own caution to the wind. After all, what’s £100,000 when family pride is at stake? Each successive circuit was a little bit faster than the last, as the cars relentlessly reduced the lap times, grinding them down from 1min 25sec and then to just over 1min 24sec.

Grass and dirt flew into the air as the two drivers sliced through the corners. You might think this was a “friendly”, but no quarter was given, and when the two Astons finally pulled into the pits the two men were white-knuckled and soaked in sweat.

Time to crunch the numbers and name the winners. In the battle of the families, it was the Palmers who came out on top, averaging 1min 25.47sec against the Brundles’ 1min 26.25sec. And in terms of fathers versus sons, well, experience triumphed over youth – and not just by a small margin. The old fellas managed an average lap time more than 2sec faster than their sons.

Which set things up nicely for the final question – who completed the fastest lap of the day? The favourite was Palmer Sr – after all, his company owns Bedford Autodrome, and “the Doc” duly set a tough target with a blisteringly fast lap of 1min 24.33sec.

However, Brundle Sr, as he continues to prove on his famous prerace “grid walks”, is a man who never fails to respond to a challenge. He had thrown the Aston around the track in a manner that brought to mind his famous description of Fernando Alonso “wringing the neck” of his car, to come up with a fastest lap of 1min 24.27sec – 6/100ths of a second quicker than his old rival.

Palmer took it as well as one might have expected. “I’m sure he’ll say it was sheer talent, but I have to tell you that Brundle – I learnt this subsequently – has been up for some sneaky practice, which those of us busy running a business didn’t have time to do,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for that, I’d have been quicker – clearly ITV pundits have far too much time on their time on their hands!

“It was tough for the boys, they’d never driven anything quite like the Aston – Jolyon hasn’t even got his driving licence yet. A single-seater would have been more like the go-karts they’ve grown up racing – in fact in a Formula Palmer Audi they were both quicker than us, though it’s nice to think that in terms of guile, and understanding how to get the best out of a car, 30-odd years of motor-racing experience goes some way towards making up for the bravado and reactions and courage of youth.

“But the Aston was great – a fabulous, fabulous sound, wonderful driving position and really, really good fun. It was intriguing to see how quickly we could come to terms with it – even if Brundle did engage in sharp practice.”

His opponent, naturally, was dismissive: “Ah, it was only a couple of laps practice, hardly enough to make up for him being on home ground.”

When it came to the N24s, though, both men were enthusiastic.

“Those Astons are powerful little cars, and the challengers will get a real buzz out of driving them,” said Brundle. “The left-hand drive will feel a bit odd at first, and they’ll have to get used to the paddle stick gearbox and the instructor bollocking them if they stray outside the white lines.

“That was one of the biggest difficulties for us as former race drivers; your instinct is to cut corners, take every opportunity to shorten the track as much as possible, and the urge to do that is very hard to resist, especially at Bedford, which has nice big run-offs. They’ve put in a new chicane for 2008, and if you were on your own you’d probably go straight through it – but the instructor won’t let you do that.

“The boys struggled a bit – they’re used to single-seaters, not a 1,400kg 400bhp road car. Put them in something they were familiar with and they’re faster. But as it was, score one for the old boys. I’ll be watching with interest to see what sort of times the challengers record, that’s for sure.”

Click here to see the times recorded by our racing drivers

Additional reporting: Richard Rae

To enter Hot Laps all you need to do is click here and follow the instructions. It’s free to enter and we’ll be selecting two winners a month. The first two contestants will be chosen on April 9 and if you want to be considered you must be available to race on April 14. The second draw will take place on April 30 and you must be available to race on May 12. You must also be over 21 with a full, current driving licence. Size and weight restrictions apply. Winners will drive at their own risk. Before you enter please make sure you have read the terms and conditions carefully

The old sweats and the young pretenders

MARTIN JOHN BRUNDLE

Age 48
Height 5ft 7in
Weight 12st 4lb
F1 races 165
Podium positions 9
Total F1 points 98
Career high points 1990 Winner Le Mans 24 hours 1992 Second place in Italian Grand Prix (finished sixth overall in F1 drivers’ championship)
Career low point Part of the Tyrrell team disqualified from the entire 1984 F1 season during which he broke his ankles at the one-off Dallas Grand Prix
What he eats for breakfast “I should say muesli with skimmed milk, but it’s usually something like Crunchy Nut Cornflakes” What he does now He is David Coulthard’s manager, as well as co-owner of 2MB Sports Management and chairman of the British Racing Drivers’ club
I didn’t know that Brundle is a qualified helicopter pilot
F1 commentary career A Sunday Times columnist, he has also been a commentator for ITV since 1997 and is famous for his prerace grid walks. In 2005 Brundle won the Royal Television Society (RTS) award for best sports pundit. The RTS famously cited Brundle’s “gimlet-eyed pursuit of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone on the grid at Indianapolis”. He also won the award in 1998, 1999 and 2006
Classic commentary “Alonso is wringing the neck of that Renault”
Racing son His son Alex, 17, has competed in the Formula Palmer Audi racing series since 2006 and finished joint eighth in the 2007 FPA Autumn Trophy

JONATHAN CHARLES PALMER

Age 51
Height 5ft 10in
Weight 12st 4lb
F1 Races 88
Podium positions 0
Total F1 points 14
Career high points 1983 Winner Formula Two championship 1987 Took fourth place at Australian F1 Grand Prix (finished in 11th place in drivers’ championship and won the Jim Clark Trophy for being the top nonturbocharged F1 driver of that season)
Career low point Failure to qualify at the 1989 Australian Grand Prix, which signalled the end of his F1 career
What he eats for breakfast Cereal with skimmed milk. Emphasis on the “skimmed”
What he does now Long-serving test driver for McLaren and helped to design the F1 road car. Founded the Formula Palmer Audi racing series in 1998 and manages the career of Justin Wilson, its inaugural champion. Palmer’s company, Motorsport Vision, owns Cadwell Park, Oulton Park, Snetterton, Brands Hatch and Bedford Autodrome
I didn’t know that Palmer is a qualified medical doctor
F1 commentary career Took up BBC1 commentary position in 1993 after James Hunt’s sudden death until F1 coverage moved to ITV in 1997. Replaced by Martin Brundle
Racing son Palmer’s son Jolyon, 17, races in the Formula Palmer Audi series and finished 11th overall in 2007 – his first season

Brundles v Palmers

Brundles’ (Martin and Alex) average lap time 1min 26.25sec
Palmers’ (Jonathan and Jolyon) average lap time 1min 25.47sec

Fathers against sons

Sons’ average lap time (average speed 70.43mph) 1min 26.9sec
Fathers’ average lap time (average speed 72.17mph) 1min 24.81sec
So fathers beat sons by an average margin of more than 2sec

The fastest lap of the day

Martin Brundle recorded 1min 24.27sec
He was 6/100ths of a second faster than Jonathan Palmer, whose best time was 1min 24.33sec
Not bad when you consider that it’s Palmer’s racetrack

*All lap times recorded in an Aston Martin N24 with traction control switched on

Video soundtrack courtesy of The Trailer Park Troubadours (www.unhitched.com)

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