Casey's driving ambition

"The F3000 was a serious race car, with a proper racing gearbox and a very powerful engine," said Casey. "I've spun my Lotus and I've put wheels into the gravel safety trap, but I've never really scared myself.

"The margin for error in a F3000 car is different gravy, though. You can play around with it a little but it is very twitchy and you have to have such quick reactions to catch it if you step over the line.

"I don't know how the professionals do it. At Vallelunga I was shown the way round the track by a proper racing driver. There was one tricky section which he said I could take flat out in fifth gear. I could see the racing line so I said, 'Okay'. Then we came up to a fast left-hander which went over the brow of a hill. Again, the guy said it would be flat out in fifth gear. I took one look and said, 'Oh no it won't be. I'll be backing off !'

"I'm a fairly sensible person with a healthy respect for life and there was no way that I was going to drive over my limit."

Casey's love for motor racing was nurtured at a young age when his father took him to meetings at Brands Hatch.

He added: "I would read about racing in magazines like Autosport and I'd watch it on television at every opportunity. One of my earliest memories is of seeing Nigel Mansell's tyre explode during the Australian Grand Prix, which cost him the 1986 world championship. But I pretty much knew unless I went go-karting from an early age there was no chance of making it as a racing driver."

Instead, Casey concentrated on golf and his decision paid off with career earnings approaching £4million, a brilliant sixth place on his Masters debut and team wins in the Walker, Ryder and World Cup competitions.

He admitted he's probably better off wearing a peaked golfing cap rather than a crash helmet.

Casey said: "I know that if I hit a bad shot on a golf course I have up to 18 holes to make a recovery. But if a racing driver gets it wrong, especially at a place like Vallelunga where the walls are so close to the track, there's no chance to escape a big accident.

"Open-wheelers like the F3000 car do scare me a little, if I'm honest. But I can definitely see a time when I'll have fun racing saloons or GTs."