Matty’s 2020 season got off to a solid start at Donington Park on Sunday lunchtime, with a sixth place in the first Porsche Carrera Cup GB race of the weekend.

His first event for almost three years, it gave the 24-year-old a scoring start to his championship campaign as he battled both rival drivers and a compromised car.

Starting from seventh on the grid Matty found himself involved in a fight as soon as the race began, as he was forced wide onto the grass and dropped to eighth by the first corner.

That set up some exciting early action as the Eighty-One Powerdrink backed driver looked to force his way back past, with a good run through the Cramer Curves on lap three providing a solid overtaking opportunity.

Getting alongside Will Martin into the Old Hairpin, Matty and his rival left each other just enough room at over 100mph to avoid a serious coming together, but frustratingly for the Northumbrian, it was Martin that emerged still ahead.

Closing up to sixth-placed Sam MacLeod, the trio engaged in seven lap battle over the Scotsman’s spot, one that Matty seized the initiative in at the end of lap 10.

Coming into the breaking zone at Goddards, Martin clattered into the inside tyre barrier damaging his car and causing enough hesitation from MacLeod to give Matty the chance to vault up the order by two places.

Running in clear air with the leader five cars six seconds up the road, Matty was unable to make any inroads into that gap with damage to his car’s splitter, an aerodynamic device which contributes a significant amount of performance to the car, compromising his speed

With MacLoed under pressure from a hard-charging Ross Wylie in the closing stages, Matty was able to pull away and make sure of his sixth place and the four championship points that went with it over the remaining laps.