MGCC MG Cup powered by Cherished Vehicle Insurance. Join us for rounds 5&6 Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on the 13th June 2021.

Live streaming of the race will be provided by Mysupercar Productions so you will see Ian busy in the paddock chatting to drivers and covering qualifying and both races.

If you would like more information on the Championship and what we offer our drivers please drop us a direct message. We are already planning for 2022 season and look forward to welcoming new drivers to join us.

The MG Cup, home of MG Rover club racing, putting drivers first. #mgroverclubracing

Photo by DS Digital http://www.dsdigital.co.uk

MGCC MG Cup powered by Cherished Vehicle Insurance. Join us for rounds 5&6 Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on the 13th June 2021. #fillthegrid #mgroverclubracing Photos by DS Digital http://www.dsdigital.co.uk

MGCC MG Cup powered by Cherished Vehicle Insurance Join us for rounds 5&6 Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on the 13th June 2021. #fillthegrid #mgroverclubracing Photos by DS Digital http://www.dsdigital.co.uk

MGCC MG Cup powered by Cherished Vehicle Insurance

Two hard-fought MG Cup contests ended with honours even between the VVC-engined Rover Metro of Mike Williams, and sophomore driver Morgan Short’s MG ZS 180. Benefiting from his wet running in Friday testing, Short put the ZS on pole position for each race by the huge margins of 7.4 and 8.8 seconds. But, after last year’s horrendous conditions, race one would offer his first dry laps of the circuit.

Williams made his experience count to outdrag Short up Clay Hill on the first lap of the opener and, while Short stuck with him, he couldn’t find a way through and had to settle for second. The Rover 220 Tomcats of the returning Richard Buckley and Matt Simpson were third and fourth, Simpson earning Driver of the Race for his charge from the back after being disqualified from qualifying for a yellow flag infringement. Iain Dowler (MG ZR 170) took Class B honours, while Jago Keen (MG ZR 160) claimed Class A.

Determined to learn from race one, Short was able to defend against Williams’s similar attack in race two, and Williams lost time as he ran on the grass. But the Metro reeled the leader back in and was ready to take advantage when Short struck a slowing backmarker exiting Knickerbrook on the final lap. However, Short held firm to take his maiden win despite the scare.

“It was enough to do quite a bit of damage to the front of the car and I lost my whole gap to Mike,” said Short, who was named Driver of the Race. “I thought, ‘There’s no point giving up now, I’ve just got to keep pushing and hope nothing’s wrong with the car.’ And luckily, it looks like most of the damage is cosmetic. I had a great race with Mike, we were battling the whole time. He’s a great competitor and he’s a good sport.”

Simpson made faster progress early in the race so was able to beat Buckley to third, while Dowler took a comfortable Class B win and Keen too repeated his earlier Class A success.

We all look forward to rounds 5 & 6 at Silverstone on the Grand Prix Circuit on the 13th June 2021

We would like to welcome Lady Maddy Maguire to the MG Cup for the 2021 season, in here MGZR170. Maddy joins the championship from Oulton Park onwards.

For more information on The MG Cup see our website http://www.mgcup.com

The MG Cup would like to welcome Jason Burgess who will joining us from Silverstone onwards for 2021 season in his MGZR170. We look forward to Jason joining us in class B in his MGZR170.

For further details please see our website http://www.mgcup.com

MGCC MG Cup powered by Cherished Vehicle Insurance

We are long used to Mike Williams winning MG Cup races, but don’t be fooled into thinking the two more that he won at Brands Hatch were straightforward. Firstly, he doubted until the 11th hour that he’d be able to take part at all due to technical problems with his Metro (pictured above). And then, having resolved those, he had a new on-track challenge in the shape of Morgan Short, son of famous racer and team boss Martin.

Morgan raced in a Class A Rover 216 GTI last year, and he has now upgraded to a frontrunning MG ZS 180 (also pictured above) that he raced for the first time at Brands. And like Williams his participation was in doubt in advance, as he was initially only on the event’s reserve list.

Matt Simpson led from the start in his Tomcat, while poleman Williams dropped to third behind Short. The Metro man passed after a few laps’ battle, but soon had to do it all again as the race was red flagged when Ian Boulton went off at Surtees, and Williams dropped back behind Short on countback. Both Short and Williams vaulted past Simpson at the restart, and a few laps later Williams got the lead from Short exiting Graham Hill Bend. Short dropped to third behind Simpson by just 0.039 seconds with a last-gasp track-limits penalty.

Iain Dowler, in fourth place overall, comfortably won the Class B contest in his ZR 170, while Jon Gil got the Class A win, and Driver of the Race with it, after passing Jago Keen.

It looked like race two would be more straightforward for Williams as he led from Short, but at mid-distance he spun at Graham Hill Bend, letting Short by into first. Williams though was able to quickly hunt Short down and pass him for the lead, again on the exit of Graham Hill Bend, aided by the fact that Short’s MG ZS was surging due to being short on fuel.

“It’s been a funny week,” said Williams. “We had so many issues with the car, didn’t really get to start it until last Saturday. Matt [Simpson] came round to help me and we got the engine in: because of the new regs I’ve had to downgrade to a standard engine now. It was problem after problem after problem on the rolling road, then I did some laps here on Friday but I was having to change up at 6000rpm; that’s just unheard of. I was introduced to Dan Surridge, we stripped the whole of the VVC mech out and he fixed all of the stuff. Went out today and it was so much better.

“It was just an awful week waiting to happen and all of a sudden it’s just become fantastic. Great qualifying; great race. Not just the result but the feeling of going round doing what we were doing. It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s still buzzing me.”

Short was fairly satisfied too. “It’s brilliant. For a big heavy car [the MG ZS] handles really well. The car was extremely understeer-y in the first race – with that big V6 hanging over the front wheels. I was quicker than [Williams] in lots of places but I was losing all of it in Graham Hill Bend and that’s where he got me.

“Second race we made some changes to try and reduce some understeer which really helped. We put in five litres less of fuel than we did the first race, and it started to surge once I got past Mike, literally two laps later. Coming through Paddock it was like the throttle’s just not on. But realistically P2 is where I deserved to be.”

Dad Martin added: “In the first race he was very gentlemanly, and [after the race one restart] he grew some horns. He’s learning so much in a very friendly but very competitive environment.”

Darren Harris won Class B, and took the Driver of the Race award, after passing Dowler mid-race. Gil again won Class A.

Great to see that regulation changes has brought the pack together with the introduction of 1.8 K Series VVC 170 spec engine for the Metros in class C. Making this option more affordable for new drivers to step into the top class in the MG Cup in 2021

Brian joins us again for Brands Hatch in his MGF VVC for rounds 1 and 2 of MG Cup.

Registrations are still open for 2021 season.