The business end of the Championship
We headed to Brands Hatch for the final round of the 2024 Miata Trophy season with the scene set for a cracking final weekend showdown with our friends in the Hills Motorsport team. We’ve had a whale of time racing with them all season, and you won’t find a better bunch in any paddock in the land, but there’s always a bit of added stress and tension when you get to the decider. The legendary ‘squeaky bum time’!
At the sharp end of the Championship, we had our man John heading the table with a decent lead over his Championship rival (and 2023 Champion) Declan Lee in 2nd, and Alex sitting in 4th, 18 points behind Nic Stott in 3rd. The plan was simply to stay near Declan for the two races and get it closed out, but it’s never quite as simple as that! For me to take 3rd, I needed to finish each race well ahead of Nic, which seemed like a tall order.
Away from the Championship fight, we had our young hotshoe Jay Coombs making an end of season appearance in the Championship, as well as racing in his regular Trackday Trophy series. Jay has established himself at the front of his class in the Trackday Trophy, and we’ve spent all season trying to get him into the Miata Trophy for that extra edge that only one make racing can give you.
The team awning was bolstered with a couple of one off guest appearances from our good friends Paul O’Neill and Carl Garnett, two OG members of the #teamoneill cycling squad that we’ve cycled round half of Europe with. Paul was back for more following his win at Donington earlier in the season, and Carl was keen to get back in a Mazda after several years racing slightly more exotic Ginetta and GT4 machinery.
As it turned out, we had a cracking weekend on the track, with John securing a pair of 3rd places , and the rest of the team fronting up to leave us with 1st and 3rd in the Championship and with big smiles on our faces. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur of champagne and giggles long into the
The weekend started well with a cracking day testing on Friday. All five drivers were pounding round on track getting the cars set up and squeezing as much pace as we could out of them ready for Saturday’s racing. As the sun began to set, we parked them up happy that we were there or thereabouts for pace with only a couple of tenths separating our drivers.
The actual racing passed in a bit of a blur to be honest. John put it on pole in the Superpole session, I outbraked myself into Druids on the opening lap and nearly took out the two leaders, Owy charged up to the front and then faded with his crappy tyres, and Carl and Jay had plenty of battles of their own.
The second race was a real cracker. Fast and frantic, the chequered flag fell with 3 Miller Motorsport cars in the top 10, and two of the championship podium spots secured.
And that’s that for 2024. After a long night of laughing and celebrating we returned to the track on Sunday to get everything packed up and back to the hutch, ready for a long off season of rebuilding, restocking and preparation ready to get the 2025 season underway at Snetterton in Norfolk.
If you are looking to get on the grid for next year, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to help you!
