Matt Griffin, Ireland’s leading GT3 racing driver, secured an impressive podium finish on his debut in this weekend’s Armor All 12 Hours of Bathurst at the spectacular 6.2-kilometer Mount Panorama circuit in Australia.
Driving a Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 with Mok Weng Sun of Singapore and local driver Craig Baird, Matt and his team mates battled against a very competitive GT3 field, heavy rain and a high attrition rate to remain in contention throughout the race.
Despite never having been to the challenging Bathurst track before, it only took Matt a handful of laps before he was immediately on the pace with drivers who had more experience of “The Mountain”.
The qualifying format at Bathurst had two sessions – the first of 90 minutes and the second of 30 minutes – each bookending Saturday’s running. Grid position was determined by the combined fastest times of the three drivers, and a benchmark time of 2:08 was set by the officials under which no GT3 car should go. Clearwater Racing qualified in third place, just two tenths of a second from pole position, but a rare slip by Craig Baird under the set time meant the Ferrari had to carry 50kg ballast in the race.
A delighted, and relieved, Matt commented afterwards: “That was the hardest race I’ve ever done from the point of view of the conditions and visibility – torrential rain for 10 of the 12 hours was like nothing I’d ever seen, and it was also foggy at the top of the Mountain. You had to be so careful; one tiny mistake and you could go hard into the wall.
“We got killed by safety cars unfortunately and lost a lap under one of them, and then didn’t get a wave by under another so went a second lap down. Our pace in the dry was really good and the car ran faultlessly the whole race, but the Mercedes and Audis had the edge on us in the wet.
“Bathurst is the best track I’ve ever been round and the whole event was absolutely brilliant. None of us put a foot wrong all weekend and even managed to avoid the kangaroos in qualifying. I thought they were joking about them at the drivers’ briefing but took note when it came up on the timing screens there were ‘roos at Turn 3. You don’t get that at Silverstone or Spa!!”
Source : Matt Griffin