and more experience in Norway
MSA British Rally Academy driver Simon Hughes, together with co-driver Claire Mole, drove a steady rally in Norway this weekend finishing the opening round of the Fiesta SportingTrophy International (FSTi) in fourth position.
This was the first attempt at a snow rally for the 23-year-old who showed positive early pace, dicing with eventual FSTi round winner Barry Clark. However, after a confident start, Hughes went off the road on stage 5 on the outside of a left hand corner, bouncing out of the ruts and clipping a snow bank, which dragged his Ford Fiesta ST into the snow.
As a result he damaged the cooling system and the engine started to overheat forcing the Welsh pair to retire the day and re-start leg 2 under SuperRally rules.
Some quick cosmetic work courtesy of Simon’s father, an auto-body repair specialist, took place overnight where his car was re-fettled and started the tricky leg 2 stages looking brand new and ready for action.
Hughes started cautiously on day 2 after his problems on leg 1, in fourth position and aiming for home-driver Sveinug Bieltvedt. With local sponsor, Technium Performance Engineering on-board, Hughes got to grip with the snow and ice-covered gravel roads and was again posting impressive stage times towards the end of the day.
The youngster rounded off his first snow rally as he started, posting solid positions, including a second on stage 17, just one second adrift of overall leader Clark. His speed however, was hampered as he caught the preceding car on two separate occasions during the final leg.
Hughes put together a mature drive in Norway gathering valuable mileage on his path to rallying’s top level.
Simon Hughes said:
“The conditions were very difficult, it was so hard to keep the car in the ruts. We needed to stay in the same line as the bigger cars in front of us but this was easier said than done. The first day was going well and I was happy with my times, I was matching the rally leader and last season’s front-runner, Barry Clark. On stage 4 we jumped out of the ice ruts and got sucked into a snow bank, damaging the car. I was disappointed with this but when we re-started on Saturday I was still able to set some fast times. For my first rally on snow I was fairly happy, we showed the pace was there, just not the luck.”
