Matt Chapman is confident in the performance of his #63 Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing Ginetta G55 GT4, after claiming 10th in race one of an incident-strewn international double-header at Spa-Francorchamps.
An ill-timed bout of food poisoning didn’t stop the 17-year-old from impressing at the weekend, qualifying seventh in GT4 for race one before making up five positions in quick order after first-corner contact.
“Unfortunately, the food poisoning before the weekend did hamper things at the start”, Chapman said.
“In race one I got spun round at the first corner, so there was nothing we could do about that, and then we had two Safety Cars so I hardly got any racing laps before the pit-stop. Jake got us back up into the top 10 though so that was a decent result after what happened.”
An unusual wheel stub issue noticed at the end of race one denied Chapman and partner Jake Giddings the chance to compete in race two, leaving the former to rue the #63 Team HARD-run Ginetta’s bad luck so far this campaign.
“We didn’t get to start race two due to the issue with the wheel stubs, we decided it wasn’t worth the risk at a track like Spa.
“I do love Spa, obviously I won there last year in the [Ginetta] GT5, but the luck hasn’t been with us again this weekend.
Both Chapman and Giddings made only their second British GT appearances of the season at Spa, but a determined Chapman believes the duo have learned a lot about their Ginetta despite their relative lack of race experience this season.
“It’s frustrating to have had so little race time, but we learnt a lot about the car, the pace was good and the main issues we’ve had so far this year have been fixed so that’s positive.
“The car was set-up well, Jake was quick and we’ve definitely been competitive and getting quicker and quicker.”
