It s been another solid performance for Welshman Simon Hughes, narrowly missing out on his maiden Fiesta SportingTrophy International victory, to finish second at this weekend s Vodafone Rally de Portugal. The event shaped up to be a real nail-bitter with Hughes and fellow FSTi competitor Barry Clark dominating the one-make championship.
Co-driven by Claire Mole, the 23-year-old took six stage wins out of a possible 18 to finish just 37.9 seconds behind first place and a massive 24 minutes in front of third placed Lithuanian Baranauskas.
Based just behind the beautiful Algarve coastline, the 357.1 kilometres of competitive route set the stage for round two of the highly-competitive FSTi championship. Portugal proved to be a testing rally for the Ford Fiesta ST as competitors battled through mixed conditions from rocks and dust, to deep thick mud after torrential down-pours on Saturday.
Hughes set out hard from the start having to swap his front and rear tyres after a rough opening stage. He pushed through the day winning two stages, finishing the leg 37.2 seconds behind leader Clark. Day two was a similar picture with Hughes and Clark trading blows as they pulled away massively, the pair in a league of their own.
After loosing his clutch on the longest stage of the rally, the 30.69 kilometre Silves/Ourique 2 test, he battled through the final two stages miraculously winning the next stage and falling a close second on the last test of leg 2. Hughes only lost a tiny 20 seconds arriving late from service after his crew did a superb job in the frantic rush to change the clutch in his Ford Fiesta ST.
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