Warren Hughes and Jody Firth are to share the drive in a Trackspeed run Porsche in this year’s Avon Tyres British GT Championship the team have announced.
Having won the series’ team championship for the fourth consecutive season running a trio of 911 GT3R in 2013 the squad will field a pair of cars this season, with Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen again paring up to drive one of the entries.
Sponsored – as they will be in 2014 by Demon Tweeks – the pair won the opening race of the season at Oulton Park, but gained only one other podium over the course of the season, though they were first across the line in the first race at Snetterton, only to be penalised after the race.
Meanwhile both Firth and Hughes competed in the series last season for different team. Firth was part of United Autosports’ McLaren MP4-12C line-up before the cars were shelved for the season’s later races. Hughes partnered Dutchman Rembert Berg in the M-Sport run Audi R8 LMS ultra, taking a pair of second places in the first half of the season.
They have previously raced together winning the UK Speed Series, then the Euro Speed Series in 2011 and 2013 together among a number of other shared drives in GP and sports prototype machinery.
“I think we are the strongest overall combination, but the 75kg we are forced to carry will make things harder,” said Hughes, referring to the weight penalty they will have to carry under the series’ balancing of relative driver abilities. “However, we believe the Porsche will be one of the better cars to carry the additional weight that our driver pairing brings with it,”
“Once we made our decision that a Porsche was the best car for us, it was a no brainer that the team to be with was Trackspeed,” explained Firth. Keith [Cheetham, team manager] and David were very welcoming, as were the rest of the team. We have already tested and I have no doubt that this was the right decision.”
Cheetham said; “we stand a great chance of taking the title again this year as long as the Balance of Performance is fair. The FIA GT series have created a very level playing field and we are hoping this has carried through to the British series. We have two great driver line-ups in Jon, Phil, Warren and Jody and the whole team has gelled already. I have a special feeling about this year and I am greatly looking forward to it.”
The 2014 season begins with a pair of 60 minute races at Oulton Park on the Easter Weekend (April 19-21).
