DSC has been hinting at this pairing for a number of weeks, but Trackspeed has today finally confirmed that 2011 SPEED UK and 2012 SPEED Euroseries champions Jody Firth and Warren Hughes will be reuniting for an assault on the 2014 British GT Championship in one of the team’s Porsche 997 GT3 Rs. They will join Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen, who are back for a second-consecutive season.
“We stand a great chance of taking the title again this year as long as the Balance of Performance is fair,” said Team Manager Keith Cheetham. “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 lineups 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.”
“Sometimes you just find team mates that click and Warren and I are one of those,” said Firth, who is also a former British GT GT4 champion. “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. Keith 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.”
“I think we are the strongest overall combination, but the 75kg we are forced to carry will make things harder,” said Hughes.”However, we believe the Porsche will be one of the better cars to carry the additional weight that our driver pairing brings with it.”
Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine remained in contention right up to the final round in a Motorbase Porsche in 2013, despite carrying similar levels of extra ballast, so there is no reason to suppose that Hughes and Firth will be anything other than title challengers in 2014. Minshaw and Keen, meanwhile, have a year’s experience as teammates behind them, so could well be one of the dark horses for this year’s title.
