02/04/2003 - Hughes Tops Brands Test in his new WSR designed and built MG ZS.

MG Sport & Racing's Warren Hughes was fastest in official Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship testing around Brands Hatch's Indy circuit today (Wednesday 2nd April).

The team's new driver Colin Turkington had looked set to end the day second fastest until Honda Racing's Matt Neal pipped him for runner-up spot with the final lap of the session in his Civic Type-R. Just 0.625 of a second covered the 12 Touring class drivers in action. Hughes said he was encouraged by his ZS's performance, which has been improved by the addition of a second exhaust system to its V6 engine.

"We're feeling the gains of that. I'm not saying we've just got loads more power, but it does mean out of corners we can hold gears longer where as before in some places would have to ask ourselves if it was second or third," said Hughes.

"It will be vital we get two strong results in the first meeting at Mondello Park to avoid being on the backfoot straight away.

"We've always been strong at Brands, we won both rounds here last August, so to come back from Mondello with plenty of points could play nicely into our hands.

"We haven't gone for outright times today, just worked through a set programme and in particular we're still learning about the new Dunlop tyres, but it's n ice to be able to pretty much match last year's pole time here.

Dick Bennetts, Managing director of WSR said " I am very happy with the results from today. All 3 drivers did a great job and WSR gained valuable information from this test. All the testing done over the winter months by WSR and the MG drivers seems to be paying off. Warren and Colin being 1st and 3rd today was a nice bonus for the team and MG"