STUNNED stock car driver Simon Fennell is still shaking after his destruction derby pile-up.Mr Fennell, 24, was at the centre of one of the most serious and dramatic smashes ever seen at Ipswich's Foxhall Stadium – even for a destruction derby.

STUNNED stock car driver Simon Fennell is still shaking after his destruction derby pile-up.

Mr Fennell, 24, was at the centre of one of the most serious and dramatic smashes ever seen at Ipswich's Foxhall Stadium – even for a destruction derby.

Taking part in his first ever destruction derby, Mr Fennell caused chaos by driving in the opposite direction around the track before colliding head on with another car.

Three other cars just managed to avoid a massive pile up but firefighters had to be called to cut Mr Fennell and fellow driver Hayden Bennett, of Bury St Edmunds, from their mangled vehicles.

Mr Fennell, who lives in Clacton with his 22-year-old girlfriend Gemma and works as a mechanic for Renault, had stripped an old Ford Fiesta before installing a roll cage and a protection plate on the driver's door in preparation for Monday's race.

He said: "I wanted to take part in the destruction derby because I had never done it before. I was nervous but excited before the race.

"You can go around the track any way you like. I was going anti-clockwise, but I think most were going clockwise.

"I swerved out the way of one car and ended up in the gravel to my left. I lost control and then tried to swerve out the way of another car.

"We both ended up swerving the same way and hitting each other straight on. I was knocked straight out."

Luckily Mr Fennell escaped with light injuries and is just suffering from a sore ankle and generally feeling stiff. He is hoping to go back to work soon.

Mr Bennett also got away with little more than a broken arm.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Mr Fennell, "but in retrospect I think I would have gone a bit slower. I suppose I would have been going at about 30 miles per hour."

After such a chilling experience Mr Fennell is having second thoughts about trying his hand at a destruction derby again.

"I just don't know if I would do it again," Mr Fennell said.

After all, the whole point of a destruction derby is to gradually destroy each other's cars so that the last one moving is the winner.