PAUL HORTON is leading one of the high-profile national saloon car racing championships - despite conceding up to 30 horse power to some of his main rivals.

The young computer engineer from Chandler's Ford has a ten-point lead after six rounds of the 750 Motor Club Hot Hatch Championship sponsored by Yokohama Tyres and Demon Tweeks.

Horton has been a top-three runner in the championship for two years but admits: "When we got to Donington for the first round, there were cars out there with more power than our Fiesta and Andrew Varey, in a Peugeot 205, was pulling about 30 horse power more!

Having to concede on speed, Horton was hoping for some helpful inclement weather through April and early May - and got it!

Horton locked horns with another local driver, Roger Ebdon from Romsey, in the early stages of the Donington race and it forced him down to seventh place. He fought back to fourth and was promoted to third when Ebdon was disqualified for the earlier incident.

It was damp and cold at Snetterton for the second round and Horton quickly swept past first-round winner Chris Lawrence in the Vauxhall Nova. But the long back straight at the Norfolk circuit favoured the Nova and Lawrence repassed Horton's Fiesta and the Hampshire driver had to settle for second place.

Horton was running fourth in race two when the second- and third-place men had a spectacular coming together and Horton picked his way through the mayhem to take another second to Lawrence.

At Brands Hatch, his favourite circuit, it rained - and a delighted Horton celebrated by bravely taking the out-side line at Paddock and finding him-self leading the pack as they streamed up to Druids. He built up a commanding four-second advantage before the rain stopped, the track dried out and Varey swept by to win in the Peugeot.

"I was pretty dejected when I got home from Brands," says Horton, "but we had three weeks to the next event and, thanks to some rapid work by Longmans, our engine supplier, we went back into action at Pembrey with some very useful power gains."

Horton set pole, with another Fiesta driver John Hammersley looking to be his main contender. And so it proved, with Horton leading and Hammersley shadowing him until Varey's rapid Peugeot, which had had qualifying problems, caught them at two-thirds distance. But this time Varey overdid it and damaged the drive shaft in an excursion on to the grass.

So it was victory at last for Horton but, with a 65kg handicap for race two, he was beaten off the grid by Hammersley. The Hampshire man briefly snatched the lead but a mistake at the hairpin dropped him back to third.

After re-taking second place from Steve Clarke's Fiesta, Horton closed fast on Hammersley and they were side by side going down the finishing straight. But the other man got it by .03 of a second.

It was enough, though, to give Horton the championship lead from Lawrence whose Nova was beset by brake problems all weekend.

Leading positions: Horton 74 points, Lawrence 64, Hammersley 53 and Varey 29.

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