GT Cup at Snetterton ended busy year for St Ives brothers

If the name sounds familiar to motorsport fans it’s because their father is Martin Short, former team owner and race driver who competed to the highest level at the Le Mans 24 Hours with his own team.

In fact, the car the brothers have been racing is a Mosler MT900 previously raced by Martin with success.

It has been a busy year on and off track for the brothers. Having turned 21 last December Morgan, in his fourth season racing, was also invited to drive a Lamborghini GT3 car in the GT Cup at Oulton Park where he won the class driving with Charlotte Gilbert having not driven the car before.

Later in the season a joint highlight was Morgan being invited to make his debut in the British GT Championship driving in the GT4 class for Raceways Motorsport with Thomas Holland in their Ginetta at Brands Hatch where he impressed.

Competing in the GTC class under the National Motorsport Academy banner the duo started the season well qualifying fastest in class and an impressive fifth overall.

In the first race, the sprint race, it was fifth place and second in class but unfortunately the 50-minute race saw retirement after Marcus had been leading the race.

Next up was the Brands Hatch GP circuit, a track neither had driven before but had been learning using SIM racing. In the opening sprint race it was a third place start overall and class pole for Morgan with a third-place finish overall winning the class.

In the afternoon’s 50-minute race Moragn again drove on his own, starting again third overall. A quick pit stop saw Morgan re-join in the lead but spent the final 20 minutes of the race holing off the McLaren driven by Tom Roche.

At the end of the race, it was a win for Morgan in the 13 year-old Mosler that had previously won at the same circuit with father Martin driving.

For Sunday Marcus joined Morgan, an issue in the sprint race meant starting from the back of the grid for the feature 50-minute race. With Marcus starting the race he soon set about making his way up the field and when he made his stop to hand over Morgan, they were fifth overall and leading their class. With Morgan at the wheel he was able to maintain the position for another class win behind the four GT3 cars.

With the Mosler’s engine requiring a rebuild it was a break away from the GT Cup in which the brothers competed in the 24 hours Citroen C1 race at Silverstone. Also, during this time Morgan had the race in the Lamborghini and also made his British GT debut in the penultimate round.

The final rounds of the GT Cup were held at Snetterton with four races, two on each day and the boys were back in the trusty Mosler, now with a rebuilt engine and running under the St Ives based Kendall Developments banner.

Saturday saw Morgan qualify in fourth overall, class pole, behind the GT3 cars. The sprint race saw Morgan hold his fourth place and class lead to the flag meaning a fourth place start for the 50-minute feature race that afternoon.

With Morgan starting the race he held position and tried to stay with the GT3 cars while building a good class lead before handing over to Marcus at the pit stop. With Marcus in the car he maintained the position to finish fourth overall and easy class winner.

Sunday morning and qualifying saw Morgan end up third overall having bettered the GT3 McLaren and just 3/10th of a second behind the Audi GT in second. Morgan was in the car for the sprint race and he made a challenging start getting into the first corner disputing second, at one point three abreast with the Audi and McLaren.

Unfortunately Morgan could not hold the position and dropped to fourth as the GT3 cars performance showed its advantage.

As the race progressed the 13-year-old Mosler was keeping in touch with the contemporary GT3 Audi and McLaren matching their lap times.

On the last lap the Mosler started to misfire but Morgan had built a sufficient lead to hold fourth overall and another class win.

The Mosler MT900 (Kendall Developments) at Snetterton. (Image: Kendall Developments.)

With the Mosler back in the pits it was hoped the issue could be easily solved for the afternoon’s feature race.

Unfortunately the problem was found to be terminal with one cylinder having lost a valve.

This meant the car had to be withdrawn from the feature race and a disappointing end to the season that has seen success. The attention will now switch to next season and looking into possibilities for both Morgan and Marcus.

St Ives based Kendall Developments were also running a Lamborghini in the GT Cup at Snetterton for Paul Bailey and James Dorlin. In the four races they had three second place finishes in class and a class win the in the final feature race.