Former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet Junior is the latest star name to sign up for this weekend's FIA World Rallycross round at Lydden Hill.

The Brazilian driver and son of Nelson Piquet, the three-time F1 World Champion, will race in the RX Lites class this Saturday and Sunday.

He holds an impressive motorsport pedigree having finished runner-up in the coveted GP2 Series in 2006 before stepping up to Formula 1 in 2007 to join the Renault F1 Team for three years.

In 2010, Piquet Jr, 28, moved to NASCAR where he remained until the end of 2013.

But this weekend will be his first taste of rallycross on British soil.

“I'm very excited about the chance to race this weekend and I’d like to thank the team and sponsors that invited me to the UK,” he said.

“I've lived in the UK and won a championship there (the British Formula 3 Championship) but it's been five years since my last race on British soil.

"This is a good opportunity to learn more about rallycross and get to know the European drivers.

"It will be my first RX Lites race and it will prepare me well for the X Games too.”

Piquet Jr will race in the one-make championship, which caters for identical 310bhp, all-wheel-drive, rear-engined machinery, and keeps running costs strictly to a minimum.

Action this weekend starts at 9am on Saturday and 10.30 on Sunday.

Adult admission on Saturday, May 24, is £20, on Sunday, May 25, £25. Weekend general admission is £40. Accompanied children under 12 go free.

An event preview to round two of the FIA World Rallycross Championship can be seen in this week's Kentish Gazette and East Kent Mercury, out tomorrow (Thursday.)