2024 MSV Miata Trophy
Rounds 1 & 2 – Silverstone National
The start of the 2024 season felt like a long time coming and we were pleased to be back racing once again in the MSV Miata Trophy. We worked hard over the winter to improve our pace as I have some unfinished business to put right!
Round one was held at Silverstone, on the National circuit. It was a bit of an up-and-down rollercoaster ride for us, but there are plenty of positives to take forwards for the rest of the season.
Friday testing went really well and confidence was high heading into Saturday morning. Qualifying was a bit tricky as the slipstream has a large effect and I wasn’t able to hook up the perfect lap in a tow. Ending up second fastest in the main qualifying session was good though, and this put me through to SuperPole. Unfortunately, I tried a little too hard on my SuperPole lap, but it was still good enough for second fastest. It looked like my Miller Motorsport team mate Alex had secured his first pole position, but unfortunately for him, he failed technical scrutineering so I inherited pole position.
Race one started fantastically and up to just before halfway I was leading fairly comfortably. That point we started developing a misfire in the engine and I could feel the power stuttering as I exited corners. I was just able to stay in the tow of Daniel Parrans-Smith, who had taken the lead, but as the stuttering worsened I fell back, crossing the line in third place. Fortunately for me, Dan had a time penalty for track limit infringements, so I ended up with second place. A podium and strong pace is a good start to the year as a whole, but I was concerned for race two.
On closer inspection of the engine between races, we could see damage on a piston. Without much time there wasn’t a lot we could do so I decided just to head out for race two and try my best.
I had another cracking start and led away, but was quickly swallowed up by the pack. The engine wasn’t stuttering as much now but I could tell the power was low and really all I could do was just hang on. I wasn’t able to attack very much, but near the end of the race I found myself in sixth place. However, on the final lap another engine stutter dropped me two places before the flag. I ended up seventh after track limit penalties were applied, so that’s not too bad damage limitation.
There’s only three weeks until the next round at Brands Hatch. The plan is to borrow Alex‘s second spare engine (he is already using his first spare!) while we rebuild our own own engine to use later in the year.
Digital Programme
Results
| Position | Best Lap Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | 2nd | 1:09.465 |
| SuperPole | 2nd | 1:09.814 |
| Race 1 | 2nd | 1:09.714 |
| Race 2 | 7th | 1:09.881 |
Full Results
Coverage
SuperPole
Race 1
Race 2
Gallery
Images: Gary Hawkins Photography
