Two difficult races at Donington Park race circuit over the weekend saw Hampshire racer Matt Harris and his team-mate Oliver Bryant, slip back from the Avon Tyres British GT Championship lead, but Matt was still able to show his pace over a weekend when mechanical problems blighted their chances.
The pair share a 400-bhp Porsche 997 GT3 run by the Tech 9 team, the series featuring a one-hour race on each day of the weekend with a compulsory driver stop. Matt, from Droxford, near Southampton, drove the first part of the first race, only to be pitched into a spin by a clutch problem, before the pairing suffered a tyre issue in Sunday's race which saw them forced to clamber back through the order and just miss out on crucial championship points.
"I qualified fifth for the first race, and I had hoped we would have been closer," explained Matt, "I was blocked on both my quick laps and we felt there was more to come.
"I started the first race and made a good getaway, passing a car before the first corner. I was behind another car for a while, but started to get a clutch problem - something we had been worried about before the race - and as I changed down for McLeans nothing happened. I hit the gearstick a couple of times and it suddenly gave me second, which locked the rear wheels and I spun. I almost held it but we didn't touch anything and I was back in 17th or so.
"All I could do was get right on it and charge back through the field, and I pushed hard and got past as many people as possible. I was around the top ten when we pitted, and Ollie took over to bring the car home seventh. It was frustrating as the spin cost us 35 seconds - and that is how far we were behind the leader at the end. It was definitely one of those 'what if?' races.
"In Sunday's race Ollie dove the first stint in the car, but when he came in for the pit stop said it felt like the car had a puncture. We found the left rear had delaminated - the tread was coming away - and the team had to change it, which made our pit stop much longer.
"I got going and again just had to push hard, we finished ninth which was just outside the points, and again it was frustrating as despite all the effort we had put in we were the same distance behind the leader as our pit stop had taken. The tyre problem seems to have affected lots of the Porsches. Overall it was a difficult weekend, two different problems robbed us of two strong finishes, and we left with only two points scored from the two races, not what we wanted as we had arrived as the championship leaders.
"Before the next British GT races I am going back to America for two Grand-Am KONI Challenge races in a Porsche at the Laguna Seca and Lime Rock circuits. Both tracks are new to me - so I have been watching lots of in car videos and driving them on the PlayStation!"
Next rounds of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship will be a two-hour race held at Snetterton, Norfiolk, on June 3rd.
