LOCAL drivers made their mark on three motoring championships at the affectionately named Howard’s Day meeting at Castle Combe on Easter Monday.

The meeting is held on honour of the late Howard Strawford and fresh from winning in the National Formula Ford race at Silverstone on Easter Sunday, Wiltshire race ace Luke Cooper dominated the FF1600 race.

Cooper, from Chippenham, took fastest lap in his Swift SC16 in the opening Formula Ford race to win by three seconds from Michael Eastwell, from Awbridge .

And he followed that up by claiming maximum points in the opening round of the FF1600 championship after winning the second race of the day with the fastest lap too.

Cooper said: “It was a bit slippery on the track but I quite like racing in the wet.”

The wet track didn’t deter last year’s Combe championship winner Simon Norris, of Melksham, from powering his Mitsubishi Colt Rallart to take a three-second victory in the Saloon Championship over Adam Prebble, who had the consolation of the fastest lap.

Third local winner at the Bank Holiday spectacular racing was Westbury’s Josh Harvey, who dominated the Hot Hatch Challenge, powering his Honda EG 2000 to an 11-second success.

The Hot Hatch race lived up to is name when championship contender James Dyer-Bufton’s Honda Civic burst into flames at Bobbies. Although the safety car was deployed, the driver didn’t sufferer any injury.

Adding to the awards for local drivers, Chippenham’s former Formula Ford driver Adam Higgins took the coveted driver of the day prize after he took a last-minute entry in the Combe GT Championships.

Higgins finished building his Ginetta G55 in the paddock before guiding it to a second-place fine finish.