2025 Miata Trophy Round 1 Snetterton Review: Work to do.

Going into a new championship with a new team it's always very difficult to know how competitive the championship will be as well as how we would fair up to the competition. Add in a late change to the tyre manufacture, a few broken "Gentlemans" agreements and learning a new race weekend format, things were always likely to be rather chaotic.

After a strong showing in winter testing at Donington Park, followed by a more frustrating day at Silverstone in mixed conditions, I went into the season feeling like we would be there or there abouts in terms of pace, and with some confidence that the new tyre might actually suit me more than the Toyo... but I could not have been more wrong.

Friday was a strange day in itself, as for the first time ever the test day was open pitlane with no official sessions, which meant "unlimited" running for the day.

The morning started damp and there was a mad rush to stand around with our hands in pockets waiting for the circuit to dry as the race day was forecast to have an unfamiliar bright orange circle in the sky. This did give me chance to get 2 new sets of the Davanti tyres fitted to rims replacing the Toyos as we had all agreed to run on the Davanti's for the weekend... but that didn't last very long.

First run of the day on the Davanti's and I genuinely thought we had replaced the Mazda with a canal boat, its no secret that the Mk3 really hasn't suited the way I drive since Avon disappeared, but the amount of roll and understeer we had in the car was crippling.

The rest of the day was spent chasing front end grip with the car wanting to wash out all the time, trying various different changes to try and get any kind of bite over the front axle. Some were able to set blistering lap times on the Davantis, but others switched back to the Toyo throughout the day and immediately went a lot faster, and thats where the post race weekend agreement went out of the window, and with the tyre supplier trying to charge me £600 for the privelge of getting my Toyos back, I was well and truly stuck on Davantis.

By the time qualifying had came around I had already accepted the likelihood that this weekend was not going to be a successful one, but we had the car in a position where at least the front end was almost doing what I wanted it to, but the overall speed just wasn't there. I initially set off trying to do my own thing and get some clear laps in which is when I set my fastest lap of the weekend, but then dropping back to try and find a tow that I just couldn't get right or without being held up, it lead to what was a disappointing 10th place in qualifying, but about where I had expected to be after Friday. The upside was, 10th place in qualifying results in starting 1st for race 2 of the weekend... probably the worst pole position I've ever had, but at this point, i'll take it!

Race 1 starting 10th was always going to be tricky and pretty chaotic within the opening lap, but one complimentary thing I can say about the Davantis is they were exceptional off the start line, immediately getting up to 9th, and having gone side by side with Cossins through the infield I found myself in 8th. However from there the chaos really started as we all lost sight of each other through the massive cloud of cement dust that was covering the circuit after there had been an oil spillage in the race before!

From there the race turned into a battle with a very familiar face, and if it had been 2021, would have been a battle for the lead as myself and Allwood set about having a proper race with each other for 7th, with me struggling more through the high speed corners and him through the low speed corners, I eventually managed to make my move stick at turn 4 up the inside and set about chasing the pack in front for 6th.

However the following lap having run wide through the final corner, the alignment went completely out, resulting in my having 4mm toe out on the right rear, which made the car quite lairy for the remainder of the race, and with a safety car and safety car restart which caught me out, all the hard work was undone and I ended up a disappointing 9th after having some stronger race pace than I had initially thought.

Starting from 1st place is something I haven't been able to do since Donington Park 2021, and it felt very strange being on the front row having qualified only 10th, but at the same time, very relaxing! I had forgot how much easier it is starting on the front row!

The initial start wasn't ideal but the 2nd phase was much better, especially with a bit of assistance from behind to push me through the first few corners in the lead before heading onto the back straight with Cossins all over my rear bumper, by the time I got to the end of the straight with the strength of the slipstream I was already in 2nd place, and the following lap down to 3rd with a similar situation losing the position to Allwood. From there things started to unravel very quickly, dropping to 7th within the next 2 laps again resulting in a race long battle with Allwood, eventually making the move stick on the final lap around the outside under the bridge. A 6th place finish which became 5th after post race penalties!

All in all, although it was a difficult weekend, we learnt a lot, and its given us a few things to try when we are at Silverstone for round 2 of the Miata Trophy! The championship itself feels like a breath of fresh air and it was great to see some familiar faces that I've not seen in what feels like ages!

Now we focus on Silverstone, my dad and I have spent plenty of time in the garage and brainstorming to try and move further up the grid, and a few new bits on the car chassis wise for Silverstone to hopefully help us more.

See you there!

Jack