FARNHAM racer Jessica Hawkins enjoyed a spectacular return to racing with a dominant weekend in the MINI Challenge at Snetterton with Excelr8 Motorsport (writes Liam Redford).

Competing for just the second time in two seasons, Hawkins was immediately into her groove driving the BIZKarts liveried Mini Cooper, taking pole position for the opening race.

She went on to win the first two races and had another podium finish in the final race of the weekend where she started in midfield after a reverse grid.

Having set a fastest lap time to claim pole position on her Mini Challenge debut, Jessica drove a flawless lights-to-flag race.

Again starting from pole in race two, courtesy of her previous day’s win, she had a more eventful drive on a damp track.

The safety car came out after a three-car collision and reduced her significant lead.

Nevertheless, Hawkins got a perfect restart and fought off a Sam Weller challenge on the final lap to claim her second victory by less than one tenth of a second in a thrilling race.

The chance of a clean sweep was made difficult by a top-five reverse grid draw, meaning that Jessica started from fifth on the grid.

She showed her pace and racecraft by moving up into a podium position to complete the best weekend of her car racing career.

She said afterwards: “Fantastic team effort all round, thank you to Brian, Excelr8 Motorsport and Toya, my hard-working mechanic, and BIZKarts for their encouragement and support. Team work makes the dream work.”

Jessica Hawkins and her race team can be contacted via email to [email protected] (tel 07720 548315).