Crowds watch May's Brooklands bid

The circuit was recreated with 20,000 sections of track

Thousands of people turned out to watch Top Gear presenter James May's attempt to recreate the famous banked Brooklands track out of Scalextric.

May and helpers pieced together 20,000 sections of track over the original 2.75-mile (4.42km) circuit to set a world record.

His attempt is being scrutinised by the Guinness World Records and filmed as part of a new TV series.

Brooklands race track, in Weybridge, Surrey, closed in 1939.

The team had to cross a river and roads to complete the circuit.

Slot car race

Once the track was finished, local residents and museum volunteers raced against a team of Scalextric Club members and enthusiasts.

The current record for a so-called slot car track measures 1.59 miles (2.56km) and was built in Berlin on 5 October 2007.

Brooklands opened on 17 June 1907 and closed at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when the aerodrome was requisitioned by the government.

It had two banked sections nearly 30ft (9m) high and cost £150,000 to build.

Last weekend May and student engineers at the University of Liverpool built a Meccano bridge to span part of a canal in Merseyside.

He has also created a house out of Lego for his new series, James May's Toy Stories, which sees him make life-size constructions out of toys.