Simon Hughes

Walian Simon Hughes, at 23 years of age, is one of the brightest young talents in British rallying. Inspired to take up the sport by his former rally driving father Ian, Simon has progressed rapidly through the ranks to become one of the most highly rated young drivers around. Starting in 2000 when just 17 years old, Simon quickly rose to prominence in the ultra competitive Peugeot 106 Super Cup. The one make championship provided the ideal mix of good rallies and close competition, with Simon ending the season by taking the coveted Rookie of the Year award. Clearly, a new star had arrived in the sport.

2001 saw Hughes continue with the 106. Still learning the trade, Hughes had picked up the lead pace by the mid part of the season, and was regularly setting fastest stage times on events as he grew in confidence. Simon also ventured abroad, contesting the Tallinn International Rally in Estonia, where he took a comfortable class win in the Peugeot.

2002 brought an altogether different challenge. Renaults new baby, the Clio S1600 was the car to have in the category, and the decision was made to bring one of the shiny new Clio's to North Wales. Contesting the second half of the British Rally Championship, Hughes endured a mixed bag of results; but glimpses of his obvious potential were there for all to see. Simon ended the year on a high with 6th overall and first two-wheel drive car home on the Cambrian Rally; his home event.

2003 was another successful season, showing that Hughes was now right up there in terms of pace with the other leading Super 1600 drivers. A convincing S1600 win on the Border Counties Rally, along with a fine 7th overall on the Pirelli Rally showed that Hughes was capable of setting the times and getting the results in the category.

2004 saw more selected and successful outings in the Super 1600 Clio, followed by several outing for crack Group N squad 22 Motorsport toward the end of the season. This culminated with Group N victory on the final round of the 2005 British Rally Championship, the Tempest Rally.

2005 saw Hughes spend much of the year gaining experience abroad, contesting the Skoda Fabia Rallye Cup in the Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovakia. The year has been nicely rounded off with selected outings in the awesome Skoda Octavia World Rally Car, resulting in some excellent finishes.

In 2006 Hughes contested the highly competitive Fiesta SportingTrophy in the UK, alongside a program of WRC events in the same car. Despite bieng dogged with bad luck and reliability problems all year, Simon set more fastest stage times than any other driver and won a drive in a Ford Focus WRC 05, which he put to good use by winning the Red Kite Rally in January 2007.

Read more about Simon's career history, and his highly successful 2006 campaign in the News section of the site.

The future looks bright for the popular young Welshman!