SARAH Moore didn’t let her relative inexperience hold her back as she claimed a class victory and two top-ten finishes on her MINI Challenge JCW debut.

The former Ginetta Junior Champion, from Tockwith, was competing for AReeve Motorsport in the highly competitive class.

Racing on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, Moore’s first time around the loop in the Mini was in qualifying – held in near-monsoon conditions.

A red flag, and a spell under the safety car didn’t knock the young speedster off her stride, and on her final lap she set the best middle sector of anyone on track to claim fourth place for race one – just 0.4 seconds off pole.

After an early red flag in the race itself, Moore made a lightning restart to claim third on the run into Paddock Hill Bend and she looked certain to claim an overall podium before she was just pipped by championship leader Brett Smith. However, she still took victory in the rookie class as well as setting one of the fastest laps of the race.

Sitting on pole for the reverse grid race two, Moore made yet another fine start and eventually finished a superb sixth.

She said: “Overall, the weekend exceeded my expectations. I’d watched quite a few races from this season before I got to Brands Hatch and I knew it was going to be a very competitive weekend.

"I was confident in the car straight away and thankfully I like racing in the wet so I knew I could get a good result in qualifying.

“The races were both great but I was cautious that as a guest entry I didn’t want to get in the way of drivers battling for the championship. So I maybe didn’t push them as hard as I could have. However, two top-ten finishes and a class victory is more than I could have asked for.

“I want to thank everyone at AReeve Motorsport. They made me feel at home straight away and it was great to work with them and learn more about the car’s set-up from their mechanics. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to race with them again.”