Whilton Mill incident fails to stop karter Hughes from performing well at Rissington (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Whilton Mill incident fails to stop karter Hughes from performing well at Rissington

CASTLE Eaton's Richard Hughes was back on track at Rissington last weekend, putting a potentially serious incident at Whilton Mill just a week earlier behind him to finish third.

Thankfully, Hughes had suffered no more than severe bruising the previous week when a kart landed on top of him.

"I was turning into the hairpin in second place and, out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly saw this kart up in the air," recounted the Total Butler supported driver.

He continued, "The next thing I felt was a tremendous bang and the kart was sitting across my legs as we slid off on to the grass.

"At first, I thought my right leg was broken but, although it hurt a lot, I was able to limp away."

The team's major task was to get Hughes' kart ready for the Rissington meeting which was held on a very hot day, causing overheating tyres and engines.

Nevertheless, after winning the third heat, Richard qualified on the front row of the grid for the big Rotax Max race.

The leading four battled together for 12 sweltering laps and were separated by less than a second at the end. The first three were even closer on the line.

Jason Bird won by a nosecone from Jonathan Downer with Hughes two-tenths of a second behind.

Hughes still leads the championship with a good margin over Downer. Hughes' protg, Peter Blakeney, from Calne, had a fantastic weekend in Junior Rotax.

He qualified his Arrow kart on the front row of the grid for the final and, despite a re-start due to a red flag, drove a mature race to finish second behind championship leader Chris Dittman.

In Senior Rotax, Chedworth's Paul Morris won the Novice Trophy in Richard's 2002 Arrow and just missed out on the A final by one place.

But David Tansley, from Malmesbury, blew his engine in practice, but BRT came to the rescue with a replacement unit.

After a race-long battle, during which karts were three or four abreast, David finished 17th from the 30 qualifiers who made it to the A final.