Race Report – Brands Hatch – 25/26 August 2024
The Brands Britannia race meeting is one of the highlights of the Classic Sports Car Club’s
calendar offering two days of racing and off-track entertainment for all the family. This time out the
MG ZRs shared the track with two of the CSCC’s series; for their first race on the 25th they were
on track with the Modern Classics and for the second which took place the following day they
had the Future Classics for company. Both of those series have 40 minute pit-stop races but the
Trophy’s championship races are of 20 minute duration. The ZR’s races were, therefore, brought
to an end when their own ‘chequered board’ (as opposed to a chequered flag) was displayed after
20 minutes whilst the remainder of the field continued for the final 20 minutes of their allotted
time.
Without any Class A cars making the trip to the Kent circuit, the entry of Class B cars was
bolstered by the return of James Dennison who was out in his ZR170 for the first time in a couple
of years and Jack Woodcock who, for the second time this season, made a welcome addition to
the grid.
Going into the weekend James Cole headed the championship points table from Matt Harvey.
Doubtless, Cole was intent on having a ‘pointsy’ weekend to further his quest for the
championship title which had so far eluded him during the 10 years that he has been competing in
the MG Trophy.
Qualifying for Race 1
The qualifying session which was held in dry, bright conditions on the Sunday morning. Dennison,
who like Woodcock was entered as a Guest driver and was not eligible to score championship
points, made his intentions clear from the start and was quickly into a rhythm and setting quick
lap times. He took pole with a time of 56.872secs which was particularly impressive given the
length of time since he last raced with the Trophy. Woodcock was second quickest only
0.284secs slower. Defending champion, Tylor Ballard, finished P3 with Cole just 0.020secs in
arrears. Both Ballard and Jack Meagher had lap times disallowed having been adjudged to have
exceeded track limits and Andrew Rogerson had a difficult start to his campaign as he only
managed six laps during the session and was destined to start from back of the grid.

Race 1
Unusually for the MG Trophy there was a rolling start to the race with the Safety Car leading the
cars round the circuit before peeling off into the pits leaving the field to head towards the start/
finish line and start racing when the lights went out with the formation of MGs followed at a
respectful distance behind the Modern Classic cars, which included Porsche’s, Jaguars, several
Lotus Elises and a couple of BMW M3s. However, by the time they swung into Graham Hill Bend
on the first lap Dennison’s leading ZR was right on the rear bumper of the last of the Modern
Classics. Woodcock held on to P2 from the start but by the time he appeared on the Pits straight
for the first time Cole had made his move and demoted him to P3.

The ZRs showed an impressive turn of speed as they moved through the pack of Modern
Classics, what they lacked in top speed they more than made up for in the brakes and handling
departments. Aided by the pitstops, they progressed through the field and by the time their race
ended the leading trio of Dennison, Cole and Ballard had passed all but three of them. Team
mates, James Blake and Matt Harvey had a race-long duel and finished in P4 and P5 respectively.
Woodcock’s promising start faltered early on but he recovered to finish P6 and Meagher was
penalised again for further track limit infringements.
After a couple of laps running at the back of the pack Rogerson made a determined effort to
chase down those ahead of him and was soon up into P3 and challenging Cole who, in turn, was
pressurising Dennison. As they worked their way through traffic Cole and Rogerson were delayed
slightly. Dennison took advantage to open a modest gap ahead of them and Ballard closed up on
the pair to make it a three car battle for P2 which ended when Rogerson made a brief visit to the
pits with about 3 minutes left on the clock.
It was another thoroughly entertaining performance from all the MG Trophy drivers which, yet
again, displayed just how competitive the ZR170s can be and Andrew Rogerson received the
Millers Oils Driver of the Race award.
Qualifying for Race 2
As the MG Trophy was sharing the track with two different CSCC series, each of which had their
own qualifying session, the ZRs took to the track again only 80 minutes after finishing race 1. For
Dennison this session was a repeat of the first; he was on the pace from the off and his fastest lap
of 56.545secs and only bettered by a small margin by a Porsche and a BWM from the Future
Classics. Though Rogerson only completed 7 laps during the session he set a time only
0.328secs slower to give himself a front row grid position with Cole and Ballard, who both had lap
times disallowed, in P3 and P4 respectively. James Blake relinquished the seat in the #391
Datoma Motorsport machine with Chas Ryles taking over for this race.

Race 2
Rogerson made the best of the rolling start and was in the lead as the pack approached Paddock
Hill bend and closed in on the Future Classics which had started ahead of the ZRs. Dennison
slotted into P2 with Cole, who was already dragging his rear bumper, in P3. By the end of lap 3
Dennison was leading the ZRs having made the most of a good run out of Clearways to nip past
Rogerson. There followed a scintillating battle between the leading duo. Rogerson snatched the
lead back on lap 7 and four laps later the pair were P1 and P2 on the road having passed all the
Future Classics. Rogerson and Dennison were really on top of their game as they jousted for the
lead but Dennison’s bid for victory was thwarted when he was delayed slightly by a Porsche 944
which allowed Rogerson to escape to victory.

Behind them, Matt Harvey had worked his way into P3 by the end of lap 1. Although Ballard
challenged him for the position he dropped away in the latter stages of the race to give Harvey a
relatively untroubled run to the third step of the podium and strengthen his grip on P2 in the
championship. During the final laps Woodcock set his sights on ousting Ballard from P4 but the
latter managed to hold on and cross the line 0.584secs ahead.
Cole pitted in response to the black and orange mechanical warning flag to have his trailing rear
bumper removed. After dropping to the back of the pack he could not recover beyond P6 but his
efforts during the day were enough to keep him at the top of he championship table. With only
two races left to run at Snetterton in September Cole’s points tally cannot be bettered had he has
been named as MG Trophy Champion 2024.

The commentators nominated James Dennison for the Millers Oils Driver of the Race award.