A SOUTH Lakeland restaurant owner is doing his bit to revive a classic hobby by hosting monthly slot-car racing nights.

Craig Sherrington, who runs Ulverston's Virginia House with his wife Louise, held an open Scalextric night at the restaurant shortly after his 40th birthday after receiving cars and track pieces that he had waited decades for.

"I've always wanted a Scalextric set since I was a child but I'd never had one," said Mr Sherrington.

"It was coming up to my 40th and my wife asked what I wanted, so I said: 'Scalextric'.

"She then threw me a surprise party. She told everyone coming that Scalextric was what I wanted so all they all turned up with Amazon vouchers so I could buy more cars and track."

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Mr Sherrington, who has now amassed a collection of more than 50 metres of track and six cars, then decided to host a Scalextric night at his restaurant.

"At the beginning of the year we were going through what events we were putting on and because it's normally dinners I tongue-in-cheek said: 'How about a Scalextric night?'.

"I put a post on Facebook and it was quite successful – there were 10 to 12 people turned up. We had my track, which is a new-style digital one, and someone came along with a classic one.

"It was really good and people really enjoyed the evening. The amount of people who came and said they hadn't played with it for ages was great, it was like rekindling their childhood."

Following on from the success of his first Scalextric evening, Mr Sherrington is now planning to host regular events with people invited to join him at Virginia House on the second Monday of every month.