HASLEMERE racing driver Katherine Legge emerged unhurt from a terrifying 140mph crash in the latest round of the British Formula 3 Championship at Rockingham, but is already hoping to be back in action for the next round.

Legge, 23, got a late call-up to rejoin Team SYR in the premier Championship Class of the series for last weekend's double-header, having had her first race in 18 months with the squad last month.

Once again, with little pre-race running in her Opel Speiss-powered Dallara F303, she impressed during the first race at the Northamptonshire circuit, which uses two corners of the super-fast, concrete wall-bound oval track.

It was at one of the quickest parts of this section, on the entry to the first chicane, that Legge suffered one of the biggest crashes of her career to date.

Earlier in the race, the front wing on her car, essential for creating downforce, had been damaged in contact with the car of Steven Kane. When she approached the chicane on lap seven, Legge's car ran over one of Rockingham's notoriously high kerbs. The front of her car lifted, got airflow underneath it and flipped her high in the air.

Fortunately, although the Haslemere girl's car landed upside down initially, it tipped itself back on to its wheels as it dragged along the tarmac, and Legge emerged entirely unscathed.

She said: "The kerbs caused a hell of a lot of problems. Loads of drivers were wrecking tubs by going over them and lifting into the air. But everyone else's cars came back down again. Mine kept going.

"The car dragged along on its gearbox for four or five seconds I think, and I was just thinking 'This is going to hurt,'. I was just hoping I didn't hit the wall because if I had, I knew I was a goner. It was pretty scary, but that's motor racing."

Despite her ordeal Legge, sponsored by National Car Rental and Dragon Print, could console herself with another fine performance in race one. More car glitches during qualifying meant she lined up back in 24th, but a sterling effort saw her pick off car after car, to end up a creditable 16th place.

"I was quicker than my team-mate," she said. "That's always an important thing to a driver, especially since he's done more races than me."

Things were going similarly well in race two, after changes to her car's set-up between races improved its handling, until the lap-seven incident.

Although Legge is currently driving for SYR on a race-by-race basis, she is hopeful of further outings in British F3 during the remaining rounds. "I'd like to be back in the car again, but it's not been decided yet," she explained.

The next round of the F3 Championship, which sits just two performance levels below Formula 1, will be at Hampshire speedbowl Thruxton, the closest thing Legge has to a 'home race', on August 16/17.