More silverware for both Forsetti Motorsport in GT4 Winter Series visit to Valencia
Sunday, February 18, 2024
This time bringing in their team driver coach Matt George into play with the next stage of Mikey Porters GT development, the team decided to run the young Porter in all three races of this fourth round out of six for the Iberian based winter series.
With fine dry weather finally coming to bless this race weekend, it was this time Porter who would be first out in Saturday’s opening sprint race aboard the full season #19 car whilst George would ride their second #7 car. Starting second, Porter would soon scoop the race lead going into turn one for the first whilst George had to make do with P4.
Despite being challenged once or twice between them during that opening half hour race, the duo came home to secure an opening P1 and P4 for the weekend - a first solo win for Porter.
Then on Sunday, Jamie Day took charge of the #19 car whilst Porter stepped in the #7. In a similar pattern to race 1, Day would again be starting from his now customary Pole Position whilst Porter was behind in P4. Whilst Day secured track position going into turn one, Porter was tagged by the front row setting McLaren and tapped into spin that saw the #7 miraculously missed by the remnants of the fifteen strong field.
Whilst Day drove another faultless race, Porter was at least able to progress through the pack to finish at the end of the Pro class by the end of that race whilst Day achieved the spoils of another race win.
That left a new master plan from the team for the weekend concluding hour long endurance race where Porter would start aboard the #19 car with Day following before swapping into the #7 car at the end of George’s opening stint.
Another P1 start for Porter (with George P4) saw the #78 McLaren swoop fast and wide around the Aston Martin to take the lead whilst George had moved up to P3 and that positioning allowed for Porter to chase the McLaren whilst George did what he could to hold back the Champiosnhip challenging #11 Mercedes AMR GT4 albeit by gaining a five second time penalty for abuse of track limits.
Greater championship opportunity graced the #19 car when the #11 Mercedes car suffered technical issues and ground to a halt off track, fortunately not interrupting the car with a safety car or yellow flag.
Pitting first, Porter had at least five minutes of rest bite before getting into the #7 and by the time the pitstops had cycled through, both Astons had recovered their P2 and P3 positions behind the McLaren.
This time around, day was unable to break that 1.5 second gap to the McLaren before eventually finishing second at the end with Porter close behind in third in results that see the Porter/Day Championship extended as the series heads to Aragon in two weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Daniel Buergin
