Saloon car racer Alex Dew was pipped to victory by less than a second in the opening round of the Hot Hatch Championship at Mallory Park.
Dew, 21, from Bampton, who had rebuilt his Citroën Saxo VTR qualified in fourth in a 50-strong field.
Dew, who is studying sports science at the University of Portsmouth worked his way up to second in seven laps.
He said: "With the leader in my sights, and a clear track ahead, I started setting consistently fast times.
"Slowly, but surely, I began to close the gap right down to the last lap.
"We eventually crossed over the line side-by-side, but I was just second."
His fastest lap was 57.40 secs, an average lap speed of 84mph, and only 0.02 seconds off the fastest lap of the race set by last year's championship runner-up in third place.
The next rounds take place at Snetterton on Easter weekend.
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