Zak pleased with debut

Seventeen year old Zak Hughes has announced his arrival on the senior Welsh rallying scene with an excellent drive at the recent Plains Rally, based out of his home town.

Driving a MonsterSport Europe-built Swift, Hughes and co-driver Chris Evans headed to the event with the intention of a steady run, to pick up experience, and most importantly some championship points after missing the first round.

The car was only collected on Wednesday and the team worked round-the-clock to have it ready in time.

“Before we started the rally, unfortunately a championship competitor fell ill and was unable to start, then on the first stage Martin Thayne put his Swift off the road. This left the door wide open for me to take maximum points,” he said.

Alongside the Swift Series win, the pair also managed third in the competitive 1600cc B10 class.

“The weekend went perfectly, the car was perfect, Chris did a fantastic job on the pacenotes, and SVP Motorsport did a brilliant job with the car,” added Hughes.

“We never had a problem all day, it really could not have gone any better. I can’t wait for round three, which is on tarmac, so I hope to be right on the pace as I have three years of tarmac experience.”

PICTURE: Zak in form (picture by Ian Francis).