HE has been sitting behind the wheel since he was 11 and now Sam Chorley could be named Britain’s best young driver.

The King’s Leadership Academy student is celebrating after making the final of a national driving competition – despite being at least months away from taking to the road. Car fanatic Sam, 16, is among 40 finalists who will battle it out in a Vauxhall Corsa for the Young Driver Challenge title at the NEC in Birmingham on September 30.

The competition has so far seen the Woolston resident drive ahead of hundreds of entrants, who are all aged between 11 and 16, at a qualifier at MMU in Crewe.

Sam has been taking Young Driver lessons since he was 11 – when he could barely out of the windscreen. I did have to get a cushion to see out of window,” said the former Woolston Primary School pupil.

“Back then it was the Seat Ibiza that we used to drive. I remember feeling ecstatic just to be behind the wheel and to be able to control it. It just clicked. I wasn’t as nervous as I should have been. It felt natural after no time.”

Sam is taken to his lessons by his granddad Garry Lawrinson whose career was in Cheshire Police.

He added: “He likes driving as well. The police taught him the advance ways to drive and he says he’s passed it down onto me.”

The competition will see Sam scored by judges on a variety of driving skills, including positioning, judgement, steering and independent driving, as well as manoeuvres including parallel parking, emergency stops and reversing into a parking bay.

“All the instructors say he is a natural at it,” said Sam’s mum Kerry Lawrinson. He can reverse park better than me. Occasionally they let me and my dad sit in the back with him and I’ve been really impressed at how confident he is and quick he picks up the speed.”

Sam, whose favourite cars include the E39 5 Series BMW and 250 GTO Ferrari, said: “I’ve had an interest in cars for as long as I can remember. I was able to name all the makes and models of cars even when I was really young.

“Even when I was still in booster seats I used to sit in the rear right seat so I could watch what the driver was doing and work out what different things did.”

Kerry, of Wentworth Avenue, added: “When we used to go shopping he used to go around the car park and he’d point and say: ‘Audi, Mercedes…’He can tell what a certain car is just by looking at the shape of the lights.”

The contest also has a serious side to it as Young Driver’s aim is to reduce the shockingly high accident rate for newly qualified drivers.

Almost 1,300 17 to 24 year olds are killed or seriously injured in road accidents each year and one in five has an accident within just six months of passing their test.

That figure is said to fall to one in 10 for those who have had lessons with Young Driver. Almost half a million Young Driver lessons have now been given at more than 50 venues.

Sam, who wants to be a commercial airline pilot, said: “People have been intrigued by Young Driver because a lot of them didn’t know that this is something you can do. With Young Driver you feel like you’re more prepared rather than at 17 having a few months of lessons and going straight out onto the road with less than a year of experience.

“With inexperience you can be overconfident and end up wrapping your car around a tree.”

Kerry added: “From a parent’s point of view it massively puts my mind at ease. I know he’s not been driving on roads as such but he has a good five years of experience.”

Sam, who turns 17 in January, is also planning to pass his driving test as soon as possible. He may even sit the test without lessons because of his experiences at Young Driver.