22GT Racing Pit Crew Rescue the Weekend

Altringham-based racing driver, Michael Bentwood, was almost on the podium at the Brands Hatch rounds of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship last weekend (12th and 13th July).

The 22GT racing team were pleased to welcome Charterhouse CEO, Andy Jenkinson, to race alongside Bentwood, in the team’s Aston Martin DBRS9. Jenkinson has a fine pedigree in historic racing and the team were delighted how quickly the Human Capital Resource tycoon, settled into the modern Aston Martin.

The weekend started badly, with an engine failure leading to a heroic overnight engine replacement from the 22GT racing technicians. Having put the problems behind them, Jenkinson went out and showed that a lack of time in a totally unfamiliar car wasn’t going to stop him qualifying a very creditable 11th. Bentwood followed it up with a traffic disrupted session that left him slightly frustrated in 4th for the Sunday race.

Jenkinson started the Saturday race and the E-Type specialist gave a good account of himself, handing the DBRS9 over to Bentwood in 10th. Bentwood, got out and pushed for the front. Having despatched the ninth placed car, Bentwood came up behind another ex-BTCC driver, Luke Hines, who appeared determined not to let him past. Bentwood swarmed all over the back of the Ferrari lap after lap and his persistence paid off on the last corner, of the final lap as he snatched 8th place.

Lining up 4th, Bentwood was determined to aim for the podium in race two. The ex-F3 start was left for dead at the start, with a missed gear relegating him two places straight away. Bentwood was soon past the Wilcox Ferrari, and there he stayed until handing over to Jenkinson with an 18 second cushion. The CEO came out in second place, and was looking set for the podium, until the safety car intervened and removed the gap to third. The re-start saw Jenkinson overhauled and relegated down to fifth, where he stayed. After the race one of the Vipers was penalised for an infringement and 22GT racing were promoted to fourth.

Afterwards Bentwood commented: “First of all I have to thank our technicians, Nathan and Mark, without them it would have been all over before we had even qualified! They did a stunning job to change the Aston’s engine overnight and that is a huge task. It was fantastic to work with Andy for this race and he performed incredible in an unfamiliar car. He is used to a totally different kind of machine with far less sophistication than the Aston, yet despite this he was straight on the pace. He did some excellent defensive work during both races and I hope we will have him racing with us a lot more in the future.”

Bentwood is back in action at Silverstone on the 17th of August, for a single 2-hour round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.