21st November 2019

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Matrix Motorsport’s Jeff Alden has ended his season on a high note. After contesting this year’s VW Racing Cup, the London-based businessman decided to round things off with an outing in the final round of the Britcar Endurance Championship, which took place at Oulton Park at the end of October.

 

The format of the meeting saw a 20-minute practice session followed by 40-minutes of qualifying and two, one-hour races. Due to the duration of the competition and the opportunity for two drivers to share the wheel, owner of HVAC Recruitment – one of the team’s sponsors - Rob Phillips joined Jeff for his first taste of the Britcar Endurance Championship.

 

Indeed, the event saw another first for the team, as the Maximum Motorsport prepared Golf sported the striking new livery for its most recent sponsor MKL Innovation, Leeds-based operational business energy consultants.

 

Having qualified first in class and 16th overall, Jeff and Rob knew there was more to come and were rightfully excited about the prospect of making up places in the first of the two races. The only dampener however, was the weather. In fact, the rain that fell during both outings can only be described as ‘biblical’.

 

A fairly cautious approach to the first hour of competition was definitely the way forward and with Jeff driving first and Rob second, a clean run to the finish to claim first in class and 12th overall was a credible result in the treacherous conditions.

 

Eager to make the most of the final outing of the year, the level of commitment went up a level for both drivers for race two. Rob started proceedings and, having battled past a number of cars in the murky conditions, handed over to Jeff after 30 minutes.

 

All was going well, right up until the point when the Golf’s turbocharger took a turn for the worse and unfortunately, with 10 minutes to go, the only option was to pull into the pits and retire. However, as most of the race had been run, Jeff and Rob were still credited with the class win.

 

“Because of the conditions and the format of the event, they were two of the toughest races I’ve ever done”, explained Jeff at the finish. “However, to do what we did in the conditions – especially as it was Rob’s debut in the Golf and in Britcar – and with the added support from MKL, we’re in a great position to use the experience and carry on from where we left off in 2020.”

 

More news about the team’s plans for next year will be announced soon.

 

ENDS