Ready, Steady, Griffin!
Matt Griffin is definitely not one to sit about and say ‘Hmmm, what shall I do today?'
With 30 races under his belt this season alone, he has covered some 20,000 kms on track, taken over 100 flights and spent almost 300 hours in the air (he has an app to record this!).
We caught up with Matt in between sessions whilst in Bahrain where he is competing in the season finale of the World Endurance Championship for Singaporean team Clearwater Racing, where they have the possibility of coming away LMGTE Am Team Champions.
Asked about his WEC highs and lows: “My big high was obviously the win at Silverstone in the first round.
We also had a good run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans but sustained damaged halfway through the race that impeded us. We could have finished 2nd which would have been massive, but we came 5th overall and 1st out of the WEC runners, it was good for points but disappointing because of what could have been.
Austin was another high point. We were really unlucky when the safety car came out because at that point we were 38 seconds in the lead which eroded our advantage. If that safety car hadn’t come out we most definitely would have been in the fight to win the race.
Fuji, another unlucky race and Shanghai, we again were unlucky when through no fault of Weng’s, he was ran into putting us in the garage for repairs.
But the low was Mexico. From a personal point I didn’t enjoy the race weekend, I didn’t enjoy the track, I think it’s badly suited to multicar racing.
When you look back on the season and what Clearwater Racing have done it’s been immense - we’re sitting here 3rd in the Championship, we’ve had a good season, we’ve lead the Championship for most of it, we’ve been really really unlucky in my opinion.”
Tomorrow is the BAPCO 6 Hours of Bahrain, how do you feel?
“Fingers crossed we have an amazing race. Not wanting to wish ill on anyone but Aston Martin have a bad race and we win the Championship! When I look back a lot of things didn’t go our way, we’ve had little smidgens of bad luck, the Aston has been so strong with Paul [Dalla Lana], they’ve managed the BoP really well - they need a result here to win the Championship, we need a perfect race! It’s going to be exciting!”
Clearwater Racing have announced their plans to enter the FIA WEC Super Season and you will remain with the team along with Keita Sawa.
"Yes, Clearwater are part of my plans for next year. I’m very lucky, I get lots of phone calls and Ferrari put me in lots of places. I always have busy seasons, since 2011 I’ve never done less than 25 races in a season. Next year won’t be any different. 2018 will be another good season for me."
Any other Championships you are considering as we’re certain one won’t be enough!
"I definitely want to have another crack at ELMS but it’s not 100% confirmed yet. I like continuity, if I can I want to go back with exactly the same team, same drivers, same car, everything. This year we [Spirit of Race] were super unlucky in ELMS, we were dominant in terms of speed, 4 poles out of 6 races, I set the fastest lap out of 5 races, we were just utterly dominant but we didn’t win the championship because we had two DNFs. I think sometimes things just aren’t meant to be."
You can follow Matt and his many adventures via his Twitter or Facebook.
