Following his departure from the WSR team, 2004 saw Hughes without a regular drive. He entered the British GT Championship for the Oulton Park round, partnering Jonathan Cocker at Gruppe M Racing in an NGT-class Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, finishing sixth in race one, and taking the victory in the second race. He entered the Spa 24 Hours (part of the FIA GT Championship) with the team, partnering Cocker, Tim Sugden and Tim Mullen, but the team failed to finish, with the car's gearbox failing after 301 laps. Following this event, he entered two rounds of the Le Mans Series. The first event was the 1000 km of Silverstone, where Hughes partnered Jonny Kane in a Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport-entered TVR Tuscan T400R GT, finishing sixth in class; whilst the second race saw Hughes and Kane partner Lawrence Tomlinson in a RSR Racing-entered T400R at the 1000 km of Spa. This would prove to be a less successful race, with Hughes crashing out after just 19 laps.