Colwyn Bay's Simon Hughes was in superb form on this weekend's Jim Clark Rally, as he showed his true pace to win the all tarmac round of the Fiesta SportingTrophy. Running in a separate event specifically for the Ford Fiesta ST150 one make rally championship, the 23 year old recovered from being slowed on the opening stage to win the event comfortably - setting fastest time on seven of the rally's special stages.Backed by Furrows for Ford in Shropshire, Hughes and his local co-driver Claire Mole from Paxton in Berwickshire were keen to do well on Claire's home event.  Hughes has good experience of the rally, and after two consecutive retirements due to mechanical problems, Simon was desperate to get much needed championship points on the board.Hughes was quickly into his stride on the opening stage, but was slowed considerably when the car in front had an accident in the stage.  Hughes and Mole slowed to make sure the crew were ok, and once the thumbs up had been shown, Simon kept his foot in till the end of the stage.  As a result, Simon dropped nearly 10 seconds to the fastest time, set by fellow MSA British Rally Elite Academy member George Thomas.With the car in good shape, Simon decided to push on.  Hughes then reeled off a string of consecutive fastest times to not only shorten the gap to the lead, but also to take the lead and build on it.  Hughes was in great form, not having to push 100% but still able to maintain a solid pace at the top of the leaderboard.  Co-driver Mole's local knowledge was also playing a major part in helping the pair build their lead.As Thomas dropped back to fourth, Jonnie Wigmore moved up to second, and was chasing Hughes for the lead.  Try as he might, Wigmore could not close the gap on Simon as he extended his lead to just over twenty seconds.  The chasing pack continued to push hard, but Simon was comfortably outpacing them when required, and was even able to have the luxury of backing off over the final stage of the rally to make sure he kept out of trouble.The tarmac lanes native to Berwickshire caught out many drivers on the day, but after a season rallying on tarmac in the Czech Republic last year, Hughes showed that the experience gained abroad had been worthwhile.  Excellent pacenotes and a well set up car had paid dividends for the talented Welshman, and he was delighted to have taken his first victory in the Fiesta championship this year:'I'm so pleased with this result' said Simon.  'After the last two events, I felt like I was banging my head against the wall.  We knew we had the pace, and we knew that when we had a clear run, we could be the quickest in the championship.  Unfortunately, we just were not getting the luck to go our way, and it was really frustrating.  After a lot of work on the car prior to this event, I was confident that the set up was very good and that we could make a strong challenge for the win here.  Claire did a fantastic job as normal, and thanks to the support we have had from Furrows for Ford, the car was in great condition as well.  We lost a bit of time on the first stage due to Dan Taylor's accident, but from stage two onwards, we closed the gap to the leader before taking over at the top ourselves.  It was very good for us to then build on that lead and control the pace till the end.  I hope our newly found good fortune continues for the rest of the season now!'Hughes will head to South Wales for the next Fiesta outing.  The Swansea Bay Rally will offer classic stages as found on Wales Rally GB, Britain's round of the FIA World Rally Championship.  The gravel roads in forests such as Resolven and Walters Arena will provide a strong challenge for Hughes and Mole.  Their win in Scotland moves them to third in the championship behind George Thomas and Kevin Davies.   Hughes does not have a huge amount of experience of the forests of South Wales, but he will certainly be charging for victory on July 22nd in two weeks as he looks to close the five point gap to leader Thomas.