Michael Bentwood made an amazing return to the British GT Championship at Snetterton last weekend by setting the fastest lap of the race – and a new lap record!

Putting in a charging stint from 17th on the grid, Bentwood finished second in Saturday’s race.  The poor starting position was due the car suffering from fuel starvation in Qualifying, causing it to cut out. But starting Saturday’s race in the thick of it, Bentwood made it look easy as he carved his way through the field.

The team had decided to give him a longer stint to make the most of his pace, and he successfully opened up a gap.  Driving with great determination, he took the lead just before the mandatory pit stop and a win looked very likely.

Leo Machitski, Bentwood’s partner at Snetterton, took over in the pits.  However an oversight concerning the seat position cost them 7 seconds and ultimately the race. Bentwood commented, “Leo did a great job in the circumstances.  It doesn’t matter how fast you are as a driver, it’s incredibly difficult to do a proper job when you’re not positioned correctly.”

Despite being in the wrong driving position Leo went on to race hard and hold off an Ascari. “Leo was launched straight into the action with the Ascari snapping at his heals, a cockpit temperature of 59C and tyres that had seen better days!” Bentwood continued “he put in a solid performance and set some very respectable times considering how new he is to the sport. He has great desire to win and I really enjoyed working with him.”

In his second race of the weekend Bentwood said it was like being an astronaut. “I was pushing so many buttons to cancel alarms and keep fuel pumps going that I didn’t have a single lap to take stock of what was going on!”

“It was manic,” he continued “from the moment I went out the temperatures were soaring and because I was in traffic the engine didn’t have an opportunity to cool down. I had to keep a close eye on the water temperature and oil pressure, I had to steer left-hand down as I was concerned that there was an issue with the front geometry.”

Bentwood’s problems didn’t end there; he then had a massive tyre explosion at 140mph+ at the end of Rivett Straight forcing him off the circuit and to limp back to the pits for a spare tyre, losing critical time.

Overall Bentwood was delighted with the weekend, commenting, “I’ve shown how capable and quick the car can be. I knew there would be some development issues with such a new car, but setting a new lap record in my first race of 2006 in such a fresh machine speaks for itself. I hope with the assistance of Barwell Motorsport and Aston Martin Racing that we can achieve further podiums and get a win under our belt in the very near future!”