Southend racing driver Paul Hughes is setting his sights high in his first full season in the MGF Cup.

Paul raced at Silverstone in the last round of the 1999 championship in October and is now gearing up for the start of the new term next month.

Things are already looking good after Paul took his MGF to a test session at Hampshire's Thruxton circuit last week.

He put in a series of fast laps despite suffering from back problems which made getting in and out of the car difficult.

"I haven't been out in the car since the one race we did at Silverstone at the end of last season, when we were four seconds off the pace," said Paul.

"But during testing today we improved the set-up of the car and are now only two seconds off the pace of the front-runners.

"We have got another test session planned at Silverstone and considering that I had never driven around Thruxton until today, things are looking really positive."

The first race of the season takes place at the Hampshire circuit on March 26 as part of the British Racing Drivers Club's new PowerTour series.

Each PowerTour round combines a Silverstone Insurance National Saloon Championship race, a British F3 Championship race and a Privilege Insurance British GP Championship race with an MGF Cup round and a guest race.

Billericay's Matt Davies will be contesting the F3 championship for Renault this year following his switch from the Fortec team for whom he finished fifth.

Wheel of fortune - Paul Hughes checks over his MGF at Thruxton during his test session

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