Colwyn Bay's Simon Hughes aims to kick off the inaugural Ford Fiesta SportingTrophy rally series event in fine style on March 11th, as the 22 year old starts the year as one of the favourites for championship honours.  The talented young Welshman will form one half of an experienced and combative duo for the season, as he is joined by the vastly experienced Claire Mole (Berwickshire), a former works Proton co-driver.The pair head to the Malcolm Wilson Rally in Cockermouth for the opening showdown, and will be part of one of the strongest one make championship line ups in recent memory.  Hughes will pilot one of twenty four identical Ford Fiesta ST150's on the rally, and after a fine showing on both the recent Tour of Epynt and the Telford Winter Stages, Simon goes into the opening round with great confidence.  Hughes finished 15th overall on the National Tarmac Championship round at Epynt, comfortably winning his class.  The youngster followed this up with a superb 6th overall at Sweet Lamb, even setting 4th fastest time on the final stage of the event in Mid Wales.In contrast, 2005 was a mixed season for Hughes as he contested a full season in the Skoda Fabia Rallye Cup, based in the Czech Republic and Croatia.  Despite winning the first round and leading three events, mechanical woes blighted an otherwise highly successful year.  Hughes also made sporadic experiences in a Skoda Octavia WRC to gain further experience, and took a straightforward class win on the Manx International Rally in a Renault Clio.With plenty of experience under his belt despite his young age, Hughes starts the Fiesta SportingTrophy seeded first of the all new M-Sport designed machines on the road.  Hughes expects a stiff battle with rivals from old and new, and will need to put all his combined experience to good use in order to extract a result on what is likely to be a wet and tricky season opener.  The Malcolm Wilson Rally has been good to Hughes in the past however.  During the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, the youngster piloted a Nissan Micra 1300 to a BTRDA 1400 National Championship outright win on the rally, and Simon is keen to start the season well:'At the moment, people are suggesting that Claire and myself are one of the favourites, and that's nice to hear' commented Simon.  'The reality is, people can say what they like, but what really counts are the stage times and how it goes on the day.  All the rallies are quite short and there is no time to regain lost time.  If you have a puncture, spin or a problem - you are history in this series.  What the Fiesta SportingTrophy does have is strength in depth - massively so.  I would say any of the Top 15 will be able to set fastest stage times on their day, so that means it could be a wide open fight for the title.  We're confident that we can play a part in that title fight should things go to plan, and with the extra mileage gained from contesting the first two rounds at World level too, it bodes well for us.'Further information on the Malcolm Wilson Rally can be found online at malcolmwilson.co.uk.  Hughes and Mole have the honour of leading away all the Fiesta crews from the Main Street in Cockermouth on their first ever outing on UK soil.