With MPS wishing the Enduro Motorsport owner and the team’s Am driver, Morgan Tillbrook, well in his recovery as he takes time out from racing to focus on his health – all focus for the next round of the British GT for MPS and the Enduro Motorsport team was turned to the international round of the Championship at the Portimao circuit in Portugal.
The team brought in lottery winner and successful Am driver Matt Topham to replace the recovering Morgan for the event.
With Matt owning an Aston Martin Vantage GT3, nicknamed Skully, the team opted to leave their McLaren 720S Evo GT3 at home and to try out the alternative British Brand’s latest GT3 offering in what would essentially be a one off event for the pairing.
The Aston Martin Racing offering, developed by legendary British Motorsport Manufacturers ProDrive, features a suite of Cosworth Electronics systems – which made it simple for MPS to get up to speed with the new car in their role as Data & Systems Engineer.
Throughout the initial practice days of the event, MPS used their Pi Toolbox experience to quickly build usable live telemetry workbooks to display all the reliability and performance parameters from the car to the Enduro Motorsport team as their car operated on track.
These telemetry pages proved to come in necessary come the day of the 3 hour race as the race’s regulations allowed for a wide range of differing strategy options – which were brought into effect with multiple on track incidents triggering a multitude of safety car periods throughout the 180 minutes of racing.
Great strategy calls and exemplary executed pit stops from the Enduro Motorsport team quickly saw their drivers improve on their jointly derived qualifying position of 5th position and then challenge at times for the lead of the race.
Ultimately, some damage caused by one of these challenges for the lead resulted in the Enduro Motorsport team having to make an unplanned pit stop for repairs, costing them an opportunity for a podium position finish or better – but MPS and the Enduro Motorsport team come away from the Algarve with much pride in their front running performance with their first competitive outing with the Aston Martin GT3.
