Telford's Rob Smith races to maiden victory

The 22-year-old had to battle through from seventh place on the grid to claim the win an the third race of the weekend, at the penultimate stage of the 2014 campaign.

It was only Smith's third appearance in the category, and he posted the fourth fastest time in qualifying.

However, an unfortunate contact on the opening lap of race one led to retirement through damaged steering.

Determined to make amends in races two and three, the Excelr8 Motorsport driver secured a strong seventh place finish, from 15th on the grid, in the second encounter on Sunday morning before going on to cap-off the weekend with a stunning maiden win.

"I can't believe I won that one starting where we did," Smith said after race three.

"I got a decent start, not amazing, but I got a good run into Becketts and then it all kicked off with a few of them. I got up to about fifth, timed everything right, and then a few things went our way. When I was into second behind Hamish (Brandon), I knew I'd have the pace on him to get by.

"After that, I was able to pull a gap as they started fighting behind and from there it was all quite comfortable. All in all I'm very pleased, after the way this year has gone in the Clios (Renault UK Clio Cup) it's great to turn it around and get the sort of result we've deserved. It's fantastic to get the win."

Race one on Saturday afternoon was, unfortunately, precisely the opening Smith didn't want to his weekend when his top-four start came to nothing on lap one after a mid-lap tangle.

Smith started race two in 15th place due to his non-finish the day before. But he made up ground throughout and came home eighth – then was elevated a place

following a time penalty for Lawrence Davey.

Starting race three from the head of the fourth row of the grid, Smith made a decent launch – this time from a standing start – and gained a couple of places at Becketts while avoiding any contact. Into lap two, only 1.3 seconds separated the lead train of five cars and as a couple of his rivals got too close for comfort Smith nipped through into third and then second place.

Piling on the pressure to Brandon into lap three, Smith quickly moved to the front with a great pass mid-lap and then pulled clear over the remaining five laps to an eventual winning margin of 2.6 seconds – having been almost four seconds to the good going into the final tour. He only just missed out on the fastest lap of the race, by a mere five hundredths of a second.

Brands Hatch will host the final three races of the MINI Challenge UK season over the weekend September 13 and 14.