2026 Miata Trophy Round 1 Snetterton: A "Diff"icult start...

We are back!

After what felt like a long winter, the Miata trophy headed to Snetterton for Round 1 of the 2026 championship for a very cold but dry race weekend!

A few things have changed for this year, with the main change being the new tyres, we have moved from the combination of Davanti's or Toyos to Yokohamas, in a new partnership deal for the championship. As the only part of the car in contact with the ground, it gives all the drivers and teams a new challenge, especially when the Yokohama has significantly more grip than the previous tyres!

Friday was a testing day, quite literally. Initially the car felt utterly horrendous and it soon became apparent that the Differential had not survived the winter shakedown at Donington as well as we thought it had. Coming out of all the slow speed corners, the inside rear wheel was spinning up a lot, a problem that would only get worse throughout the weekend.

We continued to work around the problem as best we could and by the end of the day, actually seemed to be in a decent position in terms of pace. We knew there was little chance of setting the world alight with lap times, but I was definitely in the mix heading into Saturday, even with 1 wheel drive out of most the corners.

As I tend to do, I was first down for Qualifying to try and get a banker lap in clear air before trying to find a bit of a slipstream, which is exactly how Qualifying unfolded! The first 2 laps were strong laps but left me down in 11th pace, with me not realising how close the pack was, I was feeling like I was miles off the pace.

I soon dropped in behind Allwood, Langridge and Kamal to try and get a tow and amazingly we all seemed to be very good at getting out of one anothers way and taking turns towing each other round!

The fastest lap of my Qualifying though was set on my last lap, despite losing 0.5 of a second to traffic through Coram, I improved to 8th place... Not a glamourous result but with the reverse top 15 for Race 2, it was actually the perfect position to start for both races considering our circumstances.

Race 1 started as typical Mazda racing at its very best! After getting a pretty average launch off the line, I decided to try and hold it round the outside for turn 1 and managed to gain back the place I lost, and then did the same into turn 2, jumping up to 7th. From there it just became a battle of staying in the race and waiting for the others in front to start battling as I just couldn't get the car out the corners to carry any momentum down the straights. The beauty of Mazda racing though is, everyone is always battling and tripping one another up!

It soon became a 5 way battle for 4th place with Lee making moves on both Langridge and Baldwin that did a really good job of bunching the pack up and allowing me to make an opportunistic move up to 6th place...

And we all lived happily ever and i finished in 6th, right? Nope...

3 laps from the end, heading down to Turn 4 I was hit at the apex of the corner turning me around and leaving me down in 11th place, where I would eventually finish on the road but with all the post race penalties it became 8th, back where I started but we were all left feeling a little robbed as 5th at very least was on the cards.

After the disappointment of race 1 and some pre-flight checks, it was ready for race 2, this time starting 7th and knowing everyone in front of me had qualified behind me, I felt pretty optimistic of putting on a decent show for the race, but I wasn't quite expecting what happened...

Again not the best start in the world, but then everything happened in front, there was missed gears, cars up on 2 wheels, and somehow I just appeared through the middle of it all and as I went round the outside of turn 2, I was already 4th, and it got even better as I took 3rd into turn 3. Before I knew it I was heading onto the back straight in 2nd place with a good tow behind Fletcher, I dived up the inside and there were no Mx-5's in front of me! I was leading!

However, from there, having originally tried to drag Fletcher along behind me to protect my lead, it became a bit of a case of just sitting down the back straight watching cars 1 by one come past me, leaving me in a battle for 5th with McAlpin, which on the last lap he pulled off a great overtake to take the position ending a promising race in 6th on the road before eventually inheriting 5th from a post race penalty.

Looking ahead to Silverstone its all systems go, trying to find a replacement Diff and hunting around for a few more ponies to help me down the straights, but the car felt good all things considered! Can't wait to get back out there now and see if we can make a bit more of an impression at the sharp end.