SPIN SPOILS SILVERSTONE BRITISH GT ROUND
Matty’s championship hopes in the British GT series suffered a setback on Sunday afternoon, after a spin in atrocious conditions saw him finish a distant 11th at Silverstone.
He had just assumed driving duties of his Macmillan Racing Aston Martin Vantage from team mate Jack Mitchell, around an hour into the three hour endurance race, when he made a mistake under breaking that pirouetted the car off the circuit and into a run off area.
While he was able to re-join, having to await assistance from track-side marshals to free the car from where it had become beached, lost Matty two laps and with it the prospects of another strong result, after taking his first podium at Oulton Park in the series last meeting.
It also saw the gap to championship leaders Jordan Albert and Jack Bartholomew extend to 55 points with a maximum of 125 left to play for in the remaining four races of the season.
The race began in positive style when the green flag was thrown following two laps behind the safety car, as team mate Jack Mitchell battled on a soaking wet track to maintain pace with the leaders.
Approaching the hour mark, debris on the track and a stranded Chevrolet Camaro saw the safety car deployed for a second time, at which point Mitchell pitted to hand the car over to Matty.
Taking to a track in conditions that he was experiencing for the first time as a GT driver, he emerged from the pits at the head of a fierce battle for third in class and needing to push to close the gap to the leaders, a scenario that resulted in a rare, but costly mistake for the Macmillan Racing driver.
Having dropped to 15th as a result, Matty and Mitchell both applied themselves well over the course of the remaining two hours to climb back to 11th and now look towards the championship’s next round at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, as the next opportunity to take a strong result.