Michael Bentwood made the most of his return to the British GT Championship by finishing 4th and 8th in the double-header at Thruxton over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Michael last drove the Nissan 350Z at Magny Cours in the FIA GT Championship where the demanding conditions saw the car suffer 3 drive-shaft failures.

Thruxton is the fastest circuit in the UK and the high speeds provided a sterner test of the Nissan than the previous race at Knockhill, which Michael didn’t compete in.

“The new drive-shafts held up well,” said Michael. “I did have some worries as Thruxton is so abrasive on the tyres and the fast corners are so long, they seem to go on for ever!”

“All that load goes into the drive-shafts and although we had some small issues with tyre wear, reliability was much better.”

The RJN Motorsport team got straight down to business in free practice, preparing the car for Ally McKever to qualify for the first race and Michael Bentwood to qualify for the second race.

McKever qualified the Nissan 350Z in 13th place, and Bentwood started the second race from 6th on the grid.

“The team made a really good pit stop and driver change, and we got out in 5th place,” said Michael commenting on the first race,” and then we fought our way up to 3rd.”

“We ran in 3rd for a while then the TVR of Johnny Kane started catching us up,” said Michael.

“I managed to hold him behind for about 10 laps. He was very good under brakes and on the main straight, but he wasn’t that good in the high speed stuff.”

“Eventually going down the straight into the complex he was able to just out drag me and just brake that little bit later.”

“It was disappointing to lose out on the podium spot, but I didn’t give it up easily and fourth was a fantastic result.”

For the second race Bentwood started from 6th on the grid and made a determined start, “I got a mega start, and went round the outside of Ben Collins in the Porsche 911 and also managed to edge Warren Hughes wide in the TVR.”

Bentwood kept the Nissan in 4th place and the team were looking good for another strong finish, but problems in the pit stop cost valuable time.

“We lost a couple of places in the pits with a slow stop, and then it took a while for Ally to get up to speed,” commented Michael.

McKever put in a sterling effort, but a mysterious misfire and lack of experience on the super fast sweepers of Thruxton meant an 8th place finish was the best that could be managed.

But Michael was extremely upbeat about the weekend’s racing, “We finished both races, and we hadn’t finished a race until Knockhill,” said Michael.

“We had a genuine 4th place finish in the first race. In the second race I was under instructions to race hard and stuck my nose out against old Formula 3 team mate Ben Collins in the Porsche and ex touring car rival Warren Hughes in the TVR.

“All in all it was a excellent weekend and now we’ve got some momentum to build on. Once we get some more horsepower I think we’ll be able to split the Porches and TVR’s.

“Our product is still very new and we’ve only just got the reliability and we’re already competitive. All of a sudden people are asking questions. It’s super.”