Morgan Short – the son of Intelligent Money British GT race winner Martin – will make his championship debut with Raceway Motorsport at Brands Hatch on September 9-10.
The 21-year-old is an accomplished sim racer but also scored an overall GT Cup victory at the same venue earlier this year driving a National Motorsport Academy-entered Mosler MT900 Super GT. The car last raced 13 years ago but was still sufficiently quick in Morgan and his younger brother Marcus’ hands to beat the series’ GT3 contingent.
That performance caught the eye of Raceway, for whom Morgan will now drive a Ginetta G56 GT4 alongside team regular Tom Holland.
“I’m really looking forward to stepping up to race in British GT at Brands Hatch 20 years after my father helped Rollcentre win the title at the very same track,” he said. “This will be my first time in a Ginetta GT4 but I’m looking forward to learning from Tom and the team to try and help us get a good result. It will be a steep learning curve but I’m really looking forward to the challenge!”
Holland added: “I’m really looking forward to working with Morgan and especially after what I saw him do in a Mosler at Brands Hatch. I’m more than certain he’ll find the same level of success in a Ginetta G56 GT4.”
As well as being a prolific British GT entrant and race winner, Morgan’s father Martin and his Rollcentre Racing team have been responsible for building, selling and servicing Mosler race cars for more than 20 years.
Tom Herridge won 2003’s British GT drivers’ crown at Brands Hatch driving an MT900R after another Mosler – featuring current GT3 title contender Shaun Balfe – was controversially punted into retirement at Paddock Hill Bend. Balfe’s chief engineer that season was Alan Mugglestone who by sheer coincidence now works for Raceway and will engineer Morgan.
Short Snr helped Herridge seal the 2003 title by winning at Brands where a one-year-old Morgan also appeared on the podium in his father’s arms!
“It’s funny how things turn out!” said Martin Short. “Alan [Mugglestone] was with Balfe in 2003 and none too pleased about the incident that robbed his driver of the title. It was a hard-fought campaign which naturally created some tension between the Mosler teams.
“Alan and I are now really good friends. It’s a nice coincidence that he’ll engineer Morgan 20 years after his old man helped pinch the title from under Jamie Derbyshire and Shaun Balfe’s noses, and at the same circuit too!”
The penultimate round of this season’s Intelligent Money British GT Championship is live on Sky Sports F1 and SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.