Martin Short on 2018: “British GT is very expensive, particularly if you end up in crashes”

Martin Short and the Team Rollcentre Racing outfit are unsure of their return to British GT for 2018, and their driver/partner Richard Neary is currently looking at options for next season.

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.Radio, Martin revealed that his partner in 2017, Richard Neary, who owns the Mercedes AMG GT GT3 that was co-piloted by Martin and Adam Christodoulou during the 2017 British GT season, didn’t know what Richard’s plans are for 2018. When asked about the 2017 season, and whether they would return, Martin told us:

“We don’t know what Richard’s plans are yet, he’s in Britcar this afternoon. British GT was very hard… series for both of us, very expensive for Richard. We went in the Am/Am class, there was no other Am/Am people in there, so that sort of became fairly depressing going to pick up a podium in a class of one, and picking up first prize in a class of one is a lot harder than you think it is.”

“So we got Adam Christodoulou in the car, and he really was a great driver and really showed what a difference a pro makes, but we still struggled, so as for next year, I don’t know. British GT is very expensive, particularly if you end up in crashes, and we were the victims of two… assaults (in no doubt in reference to the crash with Ian Loggie at Oulton Park among other incidents), which probably almost doubled the budget, in terms of cost, so Richard’s got some thinking about what he wants to do, and there’s that balance of cost versus enjoyment to be considered.”

“Again, it’s down to Richard, he absolutely loves the Mercedes, we all love it, it’s a fantastic car. I don’t think GT4 is an option, once you’ve driven a GT3 car, going back to 4, it’s rolling around more, it’s pitching and diving and hasn’t quite got the grunt or aero, it’s a tough thing to do. Richard’s already invested in the car, and I think that whatever Richard, and hopefully us do, will be with the Mercedes, somewhere next year.”

However, he seemed more positive of the decision that British GT will not be separated into 2 races for GT3 and GT4 as originally mooted. When asked if he thought it was a good decision, he replied:

“Yeah, definitely, I think whichever way you look at it this country can only support so many people that can afford to run those expensive cars. In Europe, you’ve got 10, 20 times the amount of people, and accordingly at the top of the financial pyramid you’ve got a correspondingly bigger amount of people, which means you can have 50 cars in Blancpain (Endurance and Sprint Series), and if you look on a population ratio, we’re probably on the right ratio for the cost of those cars in Britain.”

“To separate them would have been a bad thing, (but) it was more for the benefit of GT4 than GT3, but they’ve decided to keep them together, which I think is absolutely for the best. Part of this kind of racing is finding your way through traffic, and anticipating and learning what these guys are gonna do, and reading the body language of the car. If you don’t have that training in British GT, if you go into a bigger series in Europe, you’ll find it harder. If it’s just a GT4 grid and you’re a young man, up and coming…”

“It’s a training ground, everyone’s got to serve their apprenticeship.”

WATCH the full interview here: http://motorradio-xijqc.projectbeta.co.uk/martin-short-interview/