`Balljoint bother for Hughes on the Manx.`Talented Welsh driver Simon Hughes demonstrated his undoubted abilities once again on the Manx International Rally, but not for the first time this season, fortune did not favour the Renault Clio Super 1600 driver as he failed to finish the three day event.Driving the ProSpeed Motorsport run Clio, Hughes teamed up with Ulsterman Glenn Paterson for the first time on the Island, and the pair were looking forward to the challenges posed by the high speed roads that make up the testing nature of the Manx Rally.Hughes found a misfire to be an early problem on the early stages, before the car was returned to full health after a minor electronic glitch was found with the car.  Straight away, Hughes was back on the pace in the Super 1600 section, setting excellent times on the first day.  Hughes and Paterson working well together as they set a time just five seconds slower than Suzuki works driver Guy Wilks over the 13 mile Cringle stage.  Hughes and Wilks more than 30 seconds clear of their closest rivals, beating Ford WRC hopeful Matt Wilson in the process.  Hughes ended the leg in a strong 2nd place in the Junior and Super 1600 categories of the rally.Friday would see Hughes start well to maintain the second position, before disaster would strike for the 21year old.  Entering one of the narrowest sections of the rally, in arguably one of the widest cars, Hughes was to suffer the agony of a triple puncture on the Renault.  A car in front of the Welshman had pulled out a series of rocks into the road on a blind corner, and Hughes ran straight over the rocks, unable to avoid them due to the narrowness of the road.Over sixteen minutes were lost as Hughes crawled through the next loop of two stages on just three inflated tyres before reaching service.  Despite the disappointment, Simon was keen to bounce back as soon as possible and did so in style, consistently matching the pace of Wilks in the works Suzuki, before his rally would end with a balljoint failure in the Clio.Simon was philosophical about the retirement..`Unfortunately it hasn't been a good year for me, and the Manx was another perfect example of that.  When we were going well, we were right up there with Guy Wilks in the Suzuki, and comfortably ahead of the rest of the Super 1600 pack.  I could not believe our bad luck at getting three punctures, but it was impossible to avoid the rocks as the road was barely wider than the Clio anyway. 

We picked ourselves up from that knock back and were able to get close to Guy once again, which was great.  Unfortunately, the balljoint failed near the end of the rally and we had no option to retire.  It was very disappointing and it leaves our Championship aspirations well and truly dead in the water sadly.  However we can take plenty of positives from the event, as the team all worked very well and the car was extremely well set up for the stages. Glenn and I also got on very well for our first time together, so that was also very good. 

I don't know what will happen from here but I'm sure that with a bit of luck for a change, we can get a good result very soon.`Hughes is backed by Elf Oil and Pirelli Tyres.