MATTY TAKES 3rd FROM BRITISH GT SNETTERTON RACE ONE
Matty brought his Generation AMR Macmillan Racing Aston Martin home in third place in the first British GT race at Snetterton, in a race where for a long time, a maiden win in the series looked a serious possibility.
The number 42 car lead for half of the one hour race around the Norfolk track, but had their challenge interrupted following a speculative attempt to pass by one of their rivals.
The race got off to the perfect start, with Matty’s team mate Jack Mitchell surging into the lead from his starting position of fourth, after getting a great run on the cars ahead at the start.
Holding his nerve, the former Ginetta junior champion swooped around the outside of turn one, after running three abreast into the first corner.
Settling into his stint, the 19 year old steadily grew his advantage over the chasing pack, with battles between Jack Bartholomew and Alex Reed allowing him to make grow an advantage of over four seconds, as he headed into the pits and handed the Vantage over to Matty.
A charging in lap from the Ecurie Eccose McLaren of Sandy Mitchell and an additional five seconds of minimum pit stop time, following the team’s third place finish at Spa, saw Matty emerge in second place and in the middle of what promised to be a thrilling fight for the win.
Defending from the Beechdean Aston Martin, now in the hands of regular GT3 class frontrunner Ross Gunn and operating at peak performance after it pitted earlier in the race, allowed the Mclaren to make a break as Matty fought to hold on to his second place.
He was maintaining that position admirably, making his Aston just wide enough to thwart Gunn’s attempts to pass up until lap 20, when the frustrations became too much for the 2015 champion.
Launching a clumsy attack into one of the tight hairpins on the track, Gunn clattered into the back Matty, forcing him off track, costing Matty four seconds as he recovered and inflicting significant damage to the front end of the 407 car.
It was a manoeuver that caused a degree of frustration on the part of the North East driver and was subject to a post-race steward’s enquiry, the result of which is still awaited.
With a comfortable gap to fourth, Matty was able to re-establish a rhythm and get back onto terms with the leaders pace by the end of the race, but a stern face on the post-race podium showed his thoughts of the on the road result.
Race two of the Snetterton British GT meeting gets underway at 16:05, where Matty will take the start from seventh on the GT4 grid.