WISBECH motor racing driver Maurice Hayden has retained the 750 Motor Club Stock Hatch Class A championship after a thrilling finale to the season. In the final round of the season at Snetterton at the weekend, Hayden picked-up second place in his Citroen

WISBECH motor racing driver Maurice Hayden has retained the 750 Motor Club Stock Hatch Class A championship after a thrilling finale to the season.

In the final round of the season at Snetterton at the weekend, Hayden picked-up second place in his Citroen Saxo - a result good enough to clinch the title by just six points.

The fate of the championship was still in the balance going into the weekend with Hayden and Pete Morgan both gunning for title-winning points.

But Hayden out-pointed his rival by 52 points to 50 to win his second successive championship.

Hayden was second fastest in qualifying, with fellow Wisbech driver Terry Roughton, the only driver to exceed 80mph through the speed trap, heading the field with a scintillating lap of 1:27.66.

The rest of the Wisbech contingent also qualified well. Ryan Bensley was fourth fastest with 1:28.18, Martin Boon lapped 14th fastest in 1:29.54 and youngster Joe McMillan piloted his Saxo to 17th place with a lap of 1:29.73.

In Sunday's final race, Roughton was unfortunate to experience technical problems with his car and he dropped to 18th place.

But Bensley and Hayden catapulted their cars to the front of the field and at the chequered flag winner Bensley finished just 2.78s ahead of second placed Hayden.

Pete Morgan was the quickest man on the circuit and moved up from sixth on the grid to push Hayden all the way.

But the Wisbech driver held on in a blanket finish and edged Alex Dew by one hundredth of a second and fourth-place Morgan by seven hundredths of a second.

Boon produced another charging drive to move up from 14th to finish eighth. Joe McMillan picked up valuable track experience to finish 32nd.

Terry Roughton finished fourth in the Class A championship and Ryan Bensley seventh.