Hampshire racer Matt Harris returned to Avon Tyres British GT Championship action at Brands Hatch this weekend, once more campaigning a 400-BHP Porsche for the Tech 9 team. In the two races at the famous Kent circuit, Matt and co-driver Oliver Bryant retired from Saturday afternoon's round, but Matt took the chequer flag seventh in Sunday's one-hour race to end Matt's run of non-finishes.
The format of the British GT series sees each car featuring a pair of drivers and two qualifying sessions - one counting towards each of the weekend's races. Matt, who along with Oliver won at the opening meeting of the season, has since seen his race hopes dented by a series of mechanical issues, both in British GT and in his racing visits to the USA and Le Mans.
"I qualified eighth in my session," said Matt, based in Droxford (near Southampton), "which not too bad as the times were very close and I lost half a second on my quickest lap due to a yellow flag. In the race I effectively started seventh as an Aston Martin didn't make it onto t he grid, and it went well and I brought the car up to third. We did our driver change and Ollie was going well when the gear lever snapped! I was really disappointed, we were out a race once more and it was another non-finish.
"In Sunday's race Ollie again drove well, and we were 11th when I rejoined after taking the car over. The team were keeping me informed of the gaps to the cars in front, and kept telling me to push hard. Near the end I was closing on the Ferrari in sixth and looking to line him up for a pass, then we started to get a fuel surge problem in the slow corners - I was flooring the throttle and the car was just going uurrghhh....the engine not picking up at all.
"We could have taken sixth, but I was happy with seventh and it was good to finish a race after my recent run of non-finishes. I am off to the US to do three races over the next three weeks at the Lowes Motor Speedway circuit in Charlotte, North Carolina. I'll be driving a little Legends car on the quarter mile oval circuit there, which should be a whole new experience - I don't have to worry about turning right for a while!"
Next rounds of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship will be at Silverstone, Northants, August 11th / 12th.
