MAIDEN BRITISH GT PODIUM AFTER OULTON RACE 1

Matty delivered a combative drive in Monday’s first British GT race at Outlon Park, to take a well-earned and morale boosting second place in the GT4 class.

Starting from eighth on the grid, Graham wasted no time in making moves up the order, passing Kieran Griffin for sixth by the end of the first lap and pushing Jack Bartholomew, in the championship leading Beechdean Aston Martin over the line after the first tour.

The number 407 car was passed on lap two thanks to a good run out of Cascade corner allowed Matty to place his car up the inside of his rival into Island bend and up into fifth, before an early safety car neutralised the race, following an accident which saw the number 40 Ginetta G55 of Sean Byrne go into the barriers at the Knickerbrook chicane.

With repairs complete, Graham made a superb restart and took advantage of a collision involving Sandy Mitchell’s Mclaren 570S to assume third in the GT4 race, before building a handy advantage over the cars behind him.

With little pressure from behind, Matty was able to keep his focus on the two leading Ginetta’s, although, with a large amount of the race still to run, he assumed a watching brief as those two cars battled it out for the lead.

The 20 year old wasn’t finished making up positions though and handed over the Macmillan Racing Aston Martin to team mate Mitchell in second place, after staying out one lap longer and pushing hard to overhaul Nick Jones’ G55.

After taking over the lead and emerging from the pits right on the rear of the leading Ginetta, Mitchell tried to continue the number 42 Aston’s progress and take the win, but with understeer becoming more pronounced and a comfortable gap to third, the crew settled for their well-earned second place.

Carrying success seconds onto their mandatory pit stop time for the day’s second hour long race, the pair will be hoping the confidence found in the car this morning, remains for the afternoon.

Race two of the meeting begins at 15:30, with Mitchell taking the wheel for the first stint and starting one place higher on the starting grid in seventh.