Miata Trophy: Aimee Watts banks experience, charges to top-15 finish at Brands Hatch

Aimee Watts returned to the Miata Trophy and secured a top-15 finish at Brands Hatch, where she displayed excellent racecraft as she moved through the field to recover 8 positions, gaining extra experience at the Grand Prix layout.

Photo credits: Gary Hawkins

Aimee Watts returned to the Miata Trophy and secured a top-15 finish on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit. Watts displayed excellent racecraft as she moved through from 22nd on the grid to finish in 14th in the single-race event. The scheduled race two was cancelled following timetable delays, however the extra experience gained by Aimee will be valuable in her Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain campaign.

Following her maiden podium finish in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain just one week ago, Watts returned to Brands Hatch to continue her campaign in the Miata Trophy. Racing on the Grand Prix circuit provided Aimee with vital knowledge ahead the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain season finale in October, particular due to the limited testing opportunities available on the Grand Prix circuit.

In her most recent Mazda MX-5 meeting at Brands Hatch, Watts excelled as she secured a career best overall finish of sixth in the Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 Supercup Championship in 2024. Also claiming two victories within the Club class, Aimee was looking to continue this momentum forward into the third round of the Miata Trophy.

All sessions of the event took place on Saturday with qualifying first up late on Saturday morning. Watts made a fast start to the session, however after completing her first flying laps she became beached in the gravel trap. This resulted in a red flag interruption and with Aimee’s car undamaged, she was able to return to the pit late and rejoin the session for the final eight minutes.

Despite the off-track moment, Watts was able to continue gaining experience of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. Although she was unable to improve on her fastest time from earlier in the session, Aimee ended qualifying in 22nd position overall with a best lap of a 1:49.233.

For the first race of the day, Watts lined up from 22nd position and was aiming to progress in the twenty-minute contest. Aimee made a clean start and gained two positions on the first lap as she got up to speed. On lap two, a number of drivers ahead of her ran wide through the Grand Prix loop and kicked up dust which made visibility challenging. Nonetheless, Watts remained inside the top-20 before Northwest Racing driver Jack Hodges moved ahead.

Watts then used Hodges’ slipstream to set a series of personal best times which ensured she could defend from the drivers behind her. On lap four, contact between Drew Fletcher and Jay Coombes resulted in a safety car with Hodges also going off-track ahead. Therefore, Watts was up to 18th position and her position was improved further after Simon Baldwin fell down the order just as the neutralisation period began.

After a lengthy cleanup, the race resumed for two final laps with Watts looking racy on the restart. Following a sizeable moment for John Robinson at Hawthorn, Watts narrowly missed her rival as he rejoined the circuit in a scary moment at a high-speed section of the track. This promoted Aimee up the order and she was also able to make a move on James Ball.

Watts was still looking to make progress on the final lap of the race and she made a nice move on Will Powell on the final lap of the race. This elevated Aimee into 14th position and she held this position to the chequered flag to complete an excellent comeback drive in the first race of the day.

Race two of the weekend was set to take place later that day, however due to an incident in the GT Cup Championship, subsequent delays led to the Miata Trophy contest to be cancelled. It was an unfortunate end to the event at Brands Hatch, however the knowledge gained by Watts will be useful as the season progresses.

Aimee’s next event will be a return to the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain at Oulton Park in June, while the Miata Trophy resumes on the weekend of 19th/20th July at Donington Park.