Strong British GT debut for Murray
HAVING announced in the days leading up to round eight of the 2017 British GT Champion-ship that he would join forces with Jacob Mathiassen in the #43 Century Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 for his series debut, Dubliner Niall Murray made his mark at Brands Hatch.
Without the benefit of any pre-event experience of his new mount, the Firhouse man’s first taste of the Ginetta G55 came on Saturday morning in Free Practice.
But his stint was short with drive shaft failure after just four laps coming out of Graham Hill bend dealing the #43 crew an early blow as they sought to maximise the practice time.
Murray opted to start the second and final practice session of the weekend and his pace placed them fourth fastest in GT4 while teammate Jacob Mathiassen, who was having his first taste of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, saw his times falling with every lap.
For Murray, it was definitely wet tyres on a full wet setup for the first part of qualifying yet he still improved with every lap, and on the final tour, he put in his best effort to top the times by over three tenths of a second.
As the track dried, Mathiassen made the most of the change, setting the sixth fastest time, and combined with Murrays best effort, left the team third of the GT4 runners for Sunday’s race.
Following a hassle-free run in Sunday morning’s 10-minute warm-up, Murray was the starting driver for the main race of the weekend.
He held his third position into the first corner, and he was soon tussling with the Academy Motorsport, HHC Motorsport and Lanan Racing cars for second place.
Having cleared the latter pair by the third lap, the Century Motorsport driver was now hunting down the Aston Martin and keen to capitalise on any opportunity.
However his good work was undone on Lap Six when he was forced onto the grass approaching Stirling Bend, dropping him to fourth initially, before the lost momentum, allowing the HHC & Lanan cars to muscle their way past.
Recomposing himself for a renewed charge, the field was neutralised at the end of Lap 16 to aid the recovery of the Academy Motorsport Aston Martin.
When racing got back underway five laps later, Murray set about putting in some solid times and closing in on the lead pack in front.
As the clock turned past the one-hour point, he dived into the pits and a superb pitstop had fresh tyres fitted and Mathiassen in the car with time to spare.
Exiting the pits, Mathiassen was now up to third in GT4 once the pitstop shuffle had settled. However, the team were about to be dealt a huge blow, with officials deeming the release from the pitstop being unsafe and handing down a 20-second stop and go penalty to be served immediately.
In the end, Mathiassen’s best effort was less than half-a-second shy of Murray’s fastest time and helped them secure eighth overall.
Despite the result, this new driver combination impressed many and looks set to be a force to be reckoned with at the final round in Donington Park.
TAGS Sport
