British Touring Car star James Thompson stunned visitors to the annual Autosport International exhibition in Birmingﷺham by expressing a desire to try his💃 hand at rallying in 2002.

The recently-reconfirmed Vauxhall driver comes from rallying stock, his father 'Pi🔯ggy' Thompson having excelled on the national scene, but Thompson Jr switched his attentions to the track when he realised that making a living from a career on the dirt would be hard.

"I was always going to be a♒ rally driver, but had a very late switch of loyalties when I decided to make a professional career in motorsport and found that only the very top guys were being paid," he explained, "There was no 👍point in doing [rallying] then, as it would only have been a hobby, but in racing there were formulas in which people were earning money."

"Choosing between it being a business꧙ 🥂or a hobby has paid off for me, but now I want to get back to what I really wanted to do in the first place."

"I'm a frust🦹rated rally driveღr, to be honest, and, with plenty of time [created by the testing ban in BTCC], if I can find the right deal, it might be worth me doing a little bit."

The Yorkshireman admitted that no deal had been arranged as yet, and that his i🌼mmediate focus remained on taking the BTCC title with Triple Eight Vauxhall.