PARALYSED motor racing legend Win Percy is to return to the race track.

The Weymouth driver who was a Le Mans star and three times British Touring Car champion had his world turned upside down when he became paralysed from the waist down following an operation last year to rectify a back injury.

Sheer determination and a huge amount of support from friends and racing world supporters will see him back behind the wheel of his beloved Jaguar Mk1 when he competes at the Goodwood Revival festival this week.

Win and the Jaguar, which has been specially adapted for hand-only control, will be appearing alongside some of the world's top motor sport legends including Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jack Brabham and former F1 ace Johnny Herbert.

Win said: "The Revival is the best event of its kind in the world and the only time I have missed attending was last year following my operation.

"I'm really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the Jaguar and still very much love driving.

"I have already been test driving at Goodwood using a basic hand control system with a right-hand push-away brake, a throttle which is a ring inside the steering wheel and a gear lever clutch.

"In an ideal world I should have been born with three hands because it takes a little while to get used to this system.

"When I started out I thought they'd have to use an egg timer to record my lap times, but I have got better and better. My goal is to be within a couple of seconds of my old times."

Win said he was very positive about his current physical condition.

He added: "Other than the fact that I obviously can't walk I feel very fit and I have got my race licence back, although it is restricted to racing in Great Britain.

"Goodwood I obviously want to do because everyone in the motor world has been so good to me.

"The Jaguar owner has modified it for me to drive and Goodwood has made sure I can get everywhere I need to on the circuit.

"I think the future is really suck and see for me. I will do the Goodwood race but what comes after that we'll have to wait and see."

The Revival is the biggest and most popular historic motor racing event in the world and among those also taking to the track will be television celebrities such as ITV F1 pundit Tony Jardine, Rowan Atkinson and Tiff Needell.

Win will have no trouble handling the famous Jaguar as the 60-year-old swiftly mastered his BMW with hand controls just a short while after returning from hospital last year and currently drives a Jaguar estate.

He is incredibly fit and while medical experts warned that rehabilitation at Odstock Hospital in Salisbury could take six months he was home in less than eight weeks.

Win said he had had 18 huge accidents in his career, one of which broke his neck.

He added: "It has taken a disc to slow me down."

The Goodwood Revival recreates in exact detail the romance of motor racing as it used to be on the restored Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex.

The meeting hosts the type of cars and motorcycles that would have competed at Goodwood between 1948 and 1966 from historic grand prix cars and thundering sports and GT cars to fifties and sixties saloons.

Competitors and staff dress in period clothing and even the fish and chips are sold in 1950s newspapers.