2025 Miata Trophy Round 5 Oulton Park Review: Sweeping up a Podium!

Oulton Park, I have to say has rarely been a happy hunting ground for me. I managed to banana my first ever Mk1 there (Tucker will remember it well) I had a damper issue there in 2019 and well last years visit was just an out and out disaster in performance terms, so heading into the weekend its safe to say I was looking to right a few wrongs of the past and finally get on top of what is an incredible circuit!

We headed up Friday morning and got straight on with testing, the car had felt pretty good on the dry test day at Donington before the weather rudely interupted the progress we had made, and straight out of the blocks the car felt pretty decent again! Apart from losing a bit of time through the chicanes by avoiding the kerbs a bit more than most on the test day, overall the pace seemed to be there even if it took an hour for the track to grip up!

As others improved throughout the day though it seemed the pace would swing to and from different drivers, but with a few balance tweaks and a stint on my intended race tyres I felt pretty confident of being in the battle for the front groups, albeit it a little way off Aidan who had well and truly set the pace of the day.

With dry weather on the cards for Saturday, it seemed we were as ready as we have been all season, so we headed back home ready to drive back to Oulton Park in the morning....

Saturday morning we set off, aiming to get to the track to 8am, we are half way there and I suddenly thought.... Drivers Briefing.... 7:30.... WOOPS! I messaged Aidan to let him know I had made a slight timing error, and thankfully Mandy was on hand to smooth everything over and I joined another drivers briefing after a slight telling off for my blunder! Thankfully everyone at MSVT were super helpful and everything was sorted, we were ready to go racing!

Onto the on track stuff and Qualifying up first, a session that can make or break a weekend, and recently I have to say, I feel like I've always been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just not having the rub of the green, and after initially getting myself in the perfect spot to follow Aidan over the line to start my first proper push lap, the red flags came out for a broken down car, so I ended up being the last person back into the pits, instead of having a nice clear circuit, it looked like there would be a lot of traffic to deal with!

Fortunately, we all decided to hold back a little bit to get some clear air before we started putting in some faster laps, with Declan Lee, Aidan Hills, James Cossins and myself forming a Hills Motorsport train, with James Cossins ending up with Pole position by quite a considerable margin, Aidan Hills second, Will Morris third, I was in 4th, and Declan Lee in 5th. A top 5 lock out for the team and my best qualifying of the season.

Qualifying wasn't without incident though, as with the session ending and chasing a lap time that wasn't really on the cards, I went into Druids corner too quick, the rear snapped and I got beached in the gravel trap... leaving us with a lot of tidying up to do before Race 1.

Just as we had emptied the car of most of Jonathan Palmers gravel, with my Dad and I getting some additional help from my Mum, Ollie (nephew), Ben & Bella it was time for Race 1.

The start was probably my best start of the season, and with a run around the outside of turn 1 I managed to get myself into 3rd place, although a big sideways moment through Cascades lost me a lot of momentum, and although I managed to hold 3rd, I lost the tow of the front two cars as they started to pull away at the front.

The battle for 3rd place then commenced between Declan Lee, Will Morris and myself. As Dec went for a move around the outside of Cascades, Will got a run on both of us and took the position and initially seemed to have the pace to edge away from us slightly, before it closed back up again a lap later.

The following lap with a good run out of the first chicane I got a run on Will and as he hit the limiter in 3rd I took to the inside and made the move stick. Back up to 3rd and that was where I would finish, holding off Both Will and Dec, who had managed to score a very impressive amount of track limits infringements!

My first podium of the year and my first in the Miata Trophy, safe to say it meant a lot to all of us after a huge amount of work has gone in to get the car to the point it is now!

After celebrating a very successful race 1, it was time for race 2, starting 6th due to the reverse top 10 qualifying result.

The start of Race 2 was if anything even better! Going around the outside of John Langridge into turn 1 and taking Drew Fletcher on the exit of Cascades, everything was looking great! but as good as lap 1 was, lap 2 was the polar opposite (the beauty of Mazda racing) as Will Morris got a run on me out of Cascades, overtaking me into Island bend, I then had a big lock up into Shell Oils which gave James Cossins the run on me into the first chicane, before Aidan Hills then prized the door open into the second chicane, which wrong footed me and let John Langridge back through! from 4th to 8th in half a lap wasn't in the plan!

As the pack settled it became a 4 car battle for 5th place between Declan Lee, John Langridge, Michael Knibbs and Myself with Tyler McAlpin keeping us very honest in a very impressive first visit to Oulton Park!

Everyone seemed to be wanting to attack but wary of losing a place at the same time so no movement was really happening until I got a run onto Knibbs heading into the final corner, I tried the outside but found little to no grip there and lost a huge chunk of time, at that point I thought I was consigned to 8th place.

Thankfully though with 2 laps to go, the battle for 5th started, and after a proper Mazda battle into the final corner, I managed to get a run on all 3, taking Knibbs into turn one and up to 7th place! As John then had a look at trying to overtake Dec as we were about to start the final lap, I managed to do the same again as we headed 3 wide into turn 1, resulting in me moving up to 6th in front of John and with a mistake at Shell Oils from Dec, I inherited 5th place which I managed to defend into the final corner and take 5th rounding off a very successful day of racing!

So what I thought was potentially going to be one of my weakest circuits of the year turned out to be my strongest of the season so far! Its safe to say we were all over the moon with how the results had been but also how great the racing was as well! Extremely hard racing but very clean as well!

It's safe to say a lot of hard work has gone into getting back onto the podium. My first Miata podium, and first podium in over a year, and its been even longer since my last podium in dry conditions, it almost felt like a bit of a relief, but now I cannot wait to get to Cadwell as we eye even more progress and try and maintain this upward momentum we are finally getting!

Massive thank you to everyone at Hills Motorsport, all my amazing sponsors for supporting me and of course my Dad for the huge amount of work he's put in to keep making this car and me better and better all the time! Every lap we are learning and improving! Also thank you to everyone that messaged over the weekend and after the weekend! Hopefully we can share more success over the last 2 rounds of the season!

See you at Cadwell

Jack