Firth Wins Avon Tyres British GT4 Championship "By a Big Margin"

A metal commodities trader from Wakefield has been crowned the 2009 Avon Tyres British GT4 champion after clinching the title at Silverstone on August 16. Jody Firth, who races a 500bhp Ginetta G50 for Team WFR in the UK’s premier sportscar championship, now has an unassailable lead in the GT4 class, leading team-mate Nigel Moore by nine points with one round remaining. With the pair certain to share the car in the final round, Moore can only receive the same points as Firth and the gap between the two will thus remain the same.

Firth won the two-hour race at Silverstone along with Moore, having already qualified on pole position in the GT4 class on Saturday. “It’s obviously great to win the title and to do it by winning the race by such a big margin,” said Firth. “The car hasn’t missed a beat all year, and Nigel hasn’t put a foot wrong either.”

Moore started the August 16 race at the wheel before handing the Ginetta over to Firth at the halfway point. “We elected just to change the front tyres at the pit stop and, at first, because of the way the car felt, I thought it was the wrong decision,” explained Firth. “But it then went through every handling characteristic imaginable, which made driving the car particularly hard.”

Firth is now planning to progress further in GT racing, and is considering options to move up to the premier GT3 class of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship for 2010 or switch to sportscar racing in Europe. The final round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship will take place at Brands Hatch, Kent, on September 19/20.