Heading into the new season, me and Peter Bamford - my team-mate - were looking for a new challenge as the 2007 season was quite frustrating for us.
We wanted to try and put together a programme to race in GT2, which we managed to do with AF Corse in the GT Open series, but we also wanted to try and add in a programme back in Britain. With the Porsche having been off the pace last year for various reasons, we looked at the different cars and decided that the
Ferrari was the best way for us to go as it showed itself to be competitive last season. Piers Masarati, the team manager at Chad Peninsula Racing, then put together a deal for Peter and it was all done and agreed. From then on it’s been so far so good.
There have been some well documented delays in teams getting hold of their new cars for this season, but it seems to be something at the Ferrari end as we have the first 2008-spec GT3 Ferrari 430 and we only got it about two weeks before the season started. Despite that, we were able to go out to Spain for a test and also did some running at Knockhill, so at least we didn’t go into the Oulton Park weekend without any pre-season testing. We did encounter a few little problems, which you’d expect with a new car, but we did a fairly good job in the opening rounds and will head to Knockhill for the next round confident that we can make further progress.
We can be happy with how we went on track at
Oulton Park, although it is quite difficult to compare out performance to the other Ferraris as Allan Simonsen in the Christians in Motorsport car was so much quicker than the rest of the teams running the car. We had some brake issues but I was still able to match the pace of Adam Wilcox in the VRS car and was quicker than the CRS Scuderia cars. In race two I was able to pull away from James Sutton and stay with Adam Wilcox quite easily.
We finished seventh in the opening race and I think we would have added another good result in race two had it not been for the fact that Peter got taken off by the Jones’ Ascari just a couple of laps from the end. We showed a good level of pace with the car and it went ten times better than with the Porsche last year!
In terms of performance, CIM are definitely helped by the fact that they have a year of experience with the car. People on the outside tend to look at them and think they are a small team and might not be able to set the car up as well as some of the bigger teams, but they clearly know what they are doing. My friend Tim Mullen drove the car a few times last year, and he said it was quick every time he went out and got in the car.
They have clearly found something with it as, while Allan is a very good driver, I don’t believe he is a second a lap quicker than either me or Adam. The car responds well to changes and we need to work the team to try and find something similar with our car, but I have full confidence in the guys at Chad that we can bring that gap down.
The past few days have seen some comments made about Oulton Park from the Team Modena camp saying that they don’t feel the circuit is right for modern GT cars. To an extent, I’d agree that the circuit is a little bit dangerous but I love the place and I’d be gutted if it wasn’t on the calendar next year. If you look at the accidents that happened, the Lamborghini rolled before it got to the barrier as the car dug into the grass – and that could happen at any circuit. As for the huge crash with the Ginetta, that was one of those freak accidents that happen from time to time and it was just lucky that no-one was injured.
Oulton Park is a very difficult and challenging circuit, but it is tracks like Oulton Park and
Thruxton that make the championship what it is and make it different to other series’ around the world. You don’t want to always be racing on big wide circuits with loads of run-off as you don’t get the same challenge. British race circuits are unique and if you look at Fabrizio Giovanardi in the BTCC, he was gobsmacked when he first came to Britain but then came back to win the title last year once he got his head around it. If you take away some of the great British circuits, then you’d remove some of the skill needed to race in this country.
It’s another challenging circuit next in the shape of
Knockhill. I won there in 2003 with the Tech 9/Gruppe M team and also competed there once with the Monaro. It’s going to be difficult to find a clear lap in qualifying with the circuit being so small and with the slower GT4 cars around, so trying to get a good lap is going to be key as the races will also be very tough. Knockhill is a long trip, but it adds some good diversity to the calendar and it should provide racing that is good for the spectators and good for the TV viewers.
The fact we have done a test there already will help us going into the weekend, but quite a few of the other teams have also taken the chance to test in Scotland. CRS and Tech 9 – the two winners at Oulton – have both tested there but we have a rough idea of the lap-times they were doing and the lap-times we were doing. We think we found a good set-up for our car and we hope to be competitive. However, at Knockhill, you never know what the weather will throw at you as the sun can be shining one minute, and it can be pouring down the next!
Quickly looking at the car, driving the Ferrari this season is much different to the Porsche and it is hard to compare the two. The Ferrari is certainly quicker, but as a Porsche man at heart, I have to admit that I prefer driving that over the current car. The Ferrari is much easier to drive and doesn’t provide the same challenge, it has things like ABS and doesn’t even have a clutch so you don’t need to use the skill of heel and toe while you are racing. I did my stint in the car at Oulton Park and got out of the car without even breaking sweat, and to be honest with you, I’d prefer the car to be a bit more difficult to drive because then it requires more skill.
The GT2 car I’ll race in the GT Open is more of a race car, but even then, the experience isn’t as good as being in the Porsche. The car last year just wasn’t competitive – so it’s just sods law that this year’s seems to be a lot better. Instead I find myself doing 36 races this year and all of them in a Ferrari; not bad for a Porsche man!
My schedule is pretty hectic and at the moment, I seem to be either testing or travelling every other day. As an example, next week I have Monday off but then will be heading out to Mugello in Italy to test the GT2 car on Tuesday. After the test on Wednesday, I’ll head back home and get the bags packed to head up to Knockhill on Thursday ready for the race weekend. I’ll get back to my home near
Silverstone at around midnight on Sunday night but then I’m back out to Italy for another two day test with the GT2 car. When I get back, it’s another test in the GT3 car so I don’t have much spare time at the moment.
It will all die down when the testing comes to a close and I’ll get some of my social life back but I shouldn’t complain about it. I love being out driving the car, and in Chad Peninsula and AF Corse – who are the factory Ferrari team at the end of the day – I’m in really good position this year and hopefully a good season in 2008 will be the spring board to bigger things.
Until next time,
Matt
http://www.matt-griffin.co.uk/.
