Hughes – she’s the Mightiest

FOUR TITLES WERE DECIDED at a thrilling and action-packed Pembrey BARC meeting, including the Mighty Mini series.

Damien Harrington arrived in South Wales 41 points behind Alice Hughes and, although both admitted to having little experience of the 1.4-mile layout, Harrington led home Hughes in the opener, giving the London racer hope of closing the gap.

But Harrington ground to a halt on the formation lap of race two, and his absence handed Hughes the championship. She also retired from the race with a failure, and elected to skip the finale. Daniel Heywood was the benefactor of the retirements in the second race, and was only denied another win in the finale by Mick Grover.

In the concurrent Super

Mighty Mini class, Scott Kendall beat Adrian Tuckley in the standings. The Northampton racer had no answer to Kendall’s dominance. Comfortable victories in races one and three for Kendall sandwiched a terrific battle between the duo in the second race, where they were only separated once by more than a second, as they hit the front from a reversed grid.

Slipstreaming down the main straight, Tuckley tried up the inside at Hatchets hairpin, but was unable to make the move stick, and a further mistake on the final lap meant the gap of 7.6s flattered Kendall. It was enough for him to clinch the title.

Division 1 and 2 honours of the British Truck Racing championship were both up for grabs, with Ryan Smith and Mika Makinen respectively primed to win. Smith (MAN TGA) only needed to outscore Shane Brereton (MAN TGX) by six points to be sure of his crown, and started promisingly by converting pole in the opener, despite a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.

The second race destroyed Brereton’s chances, as he received a 20s penalty for overspeeding, while Smith came home second to Mat Summerfield (MAN TGS).

Smith and Brereton finished one-two in the third race, before a crash in the fourth and final race between Brereton and Ray Coleman (MAN TG) forced an abandonment due to the curfew.

Makinen won the Division 2 opener, and was seventh in the second after being called in for a ‘smoke penalty’, allowing Paul Mccumisky (Volvo FM12) to take a surprise win. Race three was abandoned after Luke Garrett crashed into the barriers at the Crossing, causing a lengthy delay before Makinen ended the weekend with victory in race four.

Peugeot 106 pilot Tyrone Luffarelli was guaranteed the Welsh Sports and Saloons championship, as Chris Everill took a brace of wins in his

Ginetta G50. The second race was abandoned after a frightening crash for Martin Davies’s Ford Sierra Cosworth at Honda on the seventh lap. Running in third place just behind the leaders, entering the fast right, Davies rotated backwards towards the grass bank and flipped over. He was able to climb out and was taken to hospital as a precaution.

An official Renault-sanctioned championship returned to Pembrey for the first time since 2010 with the Junior Clio Cup’s third round. Jack Young comfortably won the opening race before Max Marzorati overcame a “second-race voodoo” to end a run of winning the first race at both Snetterton and Brands Hatch, before finishing seventh in the second.