Griffin Pole and second victory in British GT Championship

22.04.03

GSD driver Matthew Griffin gained Pole Position and co-drove the Tech 9 GT3 Porsche to victory in last weekend's second round of the British GT Championship at Snetterton.

Gaining maximum points for the team so far in the Championship, Griffin shot to pole on only his third lap in qualifying.

Griffin hares through Russells Chicane and sets pole

(pic: David Lord)

"We were under a bit of pressure from the other Porsche at the beginning," explained Matt, who took the start in the class-winning car. "I didn't push too hard to start with because I knew it would ruin the tyres, so I just kept it consistent. Then I could see the other car sliding around so I started pushing a bit more."

Says Matt "I managed to put us on pole by .8 of a
second and started the two hour race.  I made a good
start and led the first lap, although I was under a lot of pressure from the other Tech 9 Porsche of Michael Mallock and Nick Stevely.  I was very careful not to push too hard too early as this would wear the tyres, so after about ten laps I saw that the second place car began to struggle with grip. I then began to push and opened a ten second lead in as many laps. 

I continued this pace and by the end of my stint my lead was in the region of 35 seconds. I was also able to pass and pull away from the GM Corvette which is in the class above ours. After around seventy minutes my team pulled me in for a pit stop.  They re fuelled the car and changed tyres, as well as doing a driver change.  It was now up to my co driver Patrick Pearce.  He managed to conserve our lead, and although he did let the Corvette past again we won comfortably and were fifth overall.  Iwas absolutely delighted to win again and make it two out of two.  The Gruppe M Tech 9 team did a great job the car was easy to drive and consistent all the way.   We now have a large lead in the Championship."

For the next round at Knockhill in Scotland the teams will have to adapt to yet another new format with two 40-minute sprints replacing the endurance format at the twisty hillside layout.

Next Round : Knockhill, Scotland, 10 and 11 May 2003