New Budget Class for the MG Trophy Championship

The new MG Trophy Championship launches a a new class for drivers with limited budgets in 2014 and will be based using MG ZR160 cars. Pete Macwaters from the MG Car Club gives us the low down on what promises to be a fantastic championship and how it all came about.

The MG Trophy co-ordinator Pete Macwaters said “Following the drivers meeting in November it was agreed that the championship would become exclusively fwd for the first time since its inception in 1998. This is a major change, however it is a fact that fwd is the drivers choice so we have dropped the rwd cars altogether. Having seen the success of the MX5 championship I thought we’d do the same for drivers wanting to race tin tops, so I proposed a basic road spec 160 class that was accepted by the other drivers and has now been added to the regs for 2014.”

Originally this championship started life as the MGF Cup with factory backing and a six figure budget, and it supported the British Grand Prix helping launch racers including James Rhodes, Warren Hughes, Fiona Leggate and BTCC rising star Jack Goff.

The new championship builds on the success of the current 160 class that fielded no less than 16 cars alongside the slick shod 190 cars this season. Interested? Get yourself a MG ZR160 road car, you can convert yourself for roughly £3,000 or have one built for you for £4,000. New racers can then compete in the championship in class D and race at the UK’s leading circuits that includes, Brands Hatch, Knockhill, Donington, Oulton Park, Snetterton and also on the full Silverstone GP circuit.

“For youngsters who want to race tin tops with a clear progression path to the slick shod cars there’s nowhere better than the Trophy Championship”

Pete Macwaters goes on to say: “I don’t think there is another championship that can offer such a competitive package within a proven organisation of the calibre of the MG Car Club and racing on all the premier circuits in the UK. Having run the existing 160 cars for some years now we have a good knowledge of what’s needed and we have built that into this new spec so drivers can be assured that this class will give them reliable racing at a budget price. The existing 160 cars will move up with a defined ECU remap and race as ZR170’s. The new cars will look just like the top class 190 cars and we will stick with the original 17” wheels and road legal list 1A tyres to keep the running costs as low as possible. For youngsters who want to race tin tops with a clear progression path to the slick shod cars there’s nowhere better than the Trophy Championship. Plus any BTCC driver that failed to get their TBL’s would be welcome to join us racing one of the slick shod 190 cars, there are a few for sale including the one that Jack Goff used in his season with us” concluded Macwaters.

If you are interested the good news is that cars to the new spec are being built now and the plan is for the club to have one on display at the Stoneleigh show on the 2nd March. Also if you put your hand in your pocket and place a deposit you will get the chance to have a try out at Brands on a track day.

The 2014 MG Trophy Championship will race over 12 rounds: (DH = All double header rounds)

1 & 2 (DH) May 3/4th Brands Hatch (Indy) MG Car Club

3 & 4 (DH) June 21/22nd Silverstone (GP) MG Car Club

5 & 6 (DH) July 13th Knockhill SMRC

7 & 8 (DH) August 3rd Donington MG Car Club

9 & 10 (DH) September 6/7th Oulton Park (Intl) MG Car Club

11 & 12 (DH) October 4/5th Snetterton 200* MG Car Club

Many thanks to Pete Macwaters ( do get in touch with Pete if you are interested – pmacwaters@onetel.com) or for more information click MG Trophy. Please note that the photo is of a current class C car but the new racers will look almost the same.

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