WORK isn’t supposed to be this much fun.

But after an hour negotiating Ringwood’s Market Place in a well-engineered pedal car, it’s not only my legs that ache – my cheeks hurt too from 60 minutes of almost constant grinning.

It’s been two years since Ringwood hosted its last pedal car spectacle and new race director Jim Stride is determined to make the 2010 race the biggest yet.

“The only problem we’ve had is keeping up with demand, so this year we’ve extended the circuit from 1km to 1.4km, which has allowed us to expand the field to 54 cars,” he said.

“Sponsors are hammering on our door and television, radio and newspapers are all entering teams.

“Each year we say the race can’t get any bigger, and then it does.”

Former race director Cliff Polton has taken a step back from the organisational aspect of the race, and will instead supply seven of the gleaming machines set to line up on the Market Place grid.

Some 10,000 people stood in rows six deep to line the town-centre course at the 2008 race, and even greater numbers are predicted on July 11. The event will be held in the best of causes.

Four charities shared the £12,000 raised from the last pedal-powered spectacle in 2008.

Now organisers are targeting a £30,000 fundraising total to split among Wave 105’s Cash For Kids, the Tenovus cancer charity and Help For Heroes.

Sponsorship provides essential support for the organisers’ fundraising goals, and Magna Mazda and the Daily Echo are again backing the race.

Waitrose, Ringwood Brewery and fine food retailer Food For Thought have already signed up for the larger sponsorship packages.

Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness raised the profile of the race in 2008 by taking part for a Channel Five documentary.

This year will see world record-holding mountain climber Rhys Jones and former Southampton Football Club captain Claus Lundekvam fulfil the celebrity quotient.

Media interest in the race has grown each year, and this year will see Wave 105 and the Daily Echo resume good-natured battle, with reporters from the paper facing the challenge of presenters Steve Power and Andy Jackson.

The traditional Concourse d’elegance – a beauty pageant for the four-wheeled stars of the show – will be held in the Market Place on Saturday, July 10.

And at 2pm the next day, two hours of wheel-to-wheel combat gets under way, with four-man teams performing slick driver changes in the pit area, bringing on rested legs to sharpen their victory challenge.

Champagne celebrations will cap the race at 4.15pm, with the lucky winners in classes for men, women and juniors climbing the steps of a superb F1-style podium.