York City will be competing in Europe and beyond next year.Unfortunately for fans of football, it won't be the Minstermen crossing the channel but flamboyant chairman John Batchelor's motor-racing team.

The City supremo has revealed plans to establish another motor racing crew that will race under the York City Racing banner next season.

One of the venues will be Monaco, a tax-haven for the rich and one of the most glamorous locations in the world, where Batchelor is planning to be behind the wheel.

Batchelor, who currently competes in the British Touring Car Championship, said: "Next season we will be running two cars in the Touring Car Championship and another two cars in the Porsche Super Cup.

"The Porsche Super Cup goes around with the Grand Prix, racing on the same day and at the same venues as Formula One with all the crowds that go with it.

"Monaco will be just one of the circuits and I will be putting two different drivers in the cars for the rest of the season while I will be doing the Touring Car.

"But because I have set the deal up I thought I should drive at Monaco.

"It is something I have always wanted to do.

"If you've raced at Le Mans and Indianapolis then Monaco is right up there with them."

As reported in the Evening Press, Batchelor is currently taking time out from racing in the BTCC after injuring his back at Oulton Park earlier in the season.

He is unlikely to race for at least a couple of months, with his place in the team being taken by the team's development driver Peter Cate.

The next round of the championship will be at Silverstone, from June 1 to June 3, when Cate will be driving alongside team-mate Jimmy Edwards Jnr.

Batchelor, who is currently undergoing treatment on his injured back, is adamant he will race again, if not this season then definitely next and in time to realise his dream of driving at Monaco.

Meanwhile chairman Batchelor's audacious bid to take-over crisis-torn ITV Digital is nearing a dead-end.

However, the City chief is still holding out hope that a solution can be realised.

"It's not dead but it doesn't look anywhere near as hopeful as when we first got involved," he said.

The City supremo is heading a consortium hoping to acquire the company from co-owners Carlton and Granada.

"We had a meeting at Carlton last week and they were very, very uncooperative," he explained.

"We told them that before we bought the assets of ITV Digital we needed to see them revisit the contract with the Football League.

"If they didn't do it we would be having a legal battle going on while we were trying to re-brand the broadcasting platform.

"We thought that would be very hard work because as it is they are losing subscribers by the day because there is nothing on their screens.

"Anyway, they have obviously had advice from their legal boys that they can walk away from the deal.

"The administrators rang and said the deadline was last Thursday. We didn't submit anything but it is a moveable deadline."

Although Batchelor is furious with Granada and Carlton over their handling of the situation, the City chairman said clubs had get to grips with the reality of the situation.

"We have had a questionnaire from the Football League asking how badly we will be affected by the ITV Digital situation," he said.

"I have written back and said we won't be affected.

"The rest of the Football League are running around like headless chickens trying to find out how to deal with going into administration.

"They are not concentrating on dealing with the situation they are in, regardless of what happens in the courts or anything else we have to deal with it.

"Here we are dealing with it well and it is going very well."

Updated: 11:11 Saturday, May 25, 2002