Great Effort = Great Result for Hunt / Kosseris Combo in Sandown GT Classic
Courtesy of the Australian GT Championship
There is a saying “the harder you work the luckier you become” and that pretty much sums up the weekend for Matthew Hunt and Anthony Kosseris at Sandown International Raceway in Victoria for the running of the Sandown GT Classic recently where the pair recorded a fifth place finish outright.
The end result in the Sandown GT Classic for the Hunt / Kosseris combo was far cry from a few weeks earlier when their Porsche 996 GT3 Cup Car was just about destroyed in a private practice session at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway. With their Porsche 996 GT3 Cup Car in tatters there was a strong chance that Hunt and Kosseris would be non starters for the Sandown GT Classic.
However, after two weeks of hard work, the Porsche 996 GT3 Cup Car was rebuilt in the nick of time in readiness for the Sandown GT Classic and Hunt and Kosseris took their place in the field, and it ended with them finishing a fantastic fifth place outright and second place in the Porsche Drivers Challenge class.
“After the crash we thought the car was a complete right off, but our team surveyed the damage, and they then worked their hands to the bone in order to get the car ready for the Sandown GT Classic,” Hunt explained.
“Words cannot describe how satisfying it is to achieve such as result, and the whole team worked like clockwork and that was without a doubt the key to our successful weekend, as everything went according to plan and we were rewarded with a wonderful result.”
With their Porsche 996 GT3 Cup Car not missing a beat throughout the 350km event, Hunt and Kosseris managed to maintain their consistency both out on the track and in their pit stops.
“We qualified seventh outright and we were as high as fourth and as low as sixth throughout the race, and everything went according to plan, and as a whole team we couldn’t be happier,” Hunt expressed.
Despite the big crash prior to the Sandown GT Classic was a major setback, Hunt and Kosseris carried strong endurance form after they claimed victory in the Eastern Creek 6 Hour and finished in second place at the Oran Park 1 Hour event.
Although Hunt is an experienced racer with a number of years experience in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series, his teammate in Kosseris is a Motorsport rookie in every sense of the word, and that has made the success of the Hunt / Kosseris combo that even more remarkable.
“Anthony has picked up the pace very quickly and at the Sandown GT Classic he was setting some impressive lap times, and he certainly held up his end of the bargain over the course of the weekend,” Hunt commended.
“Consistency is one of the features of Anthony’s driving and he definitely illustrated that during the running of the Sandown GT Classic and by the end of the weekend he was setting lap times close to mine.
“Up until late this year Anthony had only ran in drive days, and one of the main reasons we competed in those low key endurance events leading up to the Sandown GT Classic was so that he could get the necessary signatures on his CAMS licence log book.”
The plan for next year is for both Hunt and Kosseris to contest the entire Australian GT Championship in the Porsche Drivers Challenge and they are aiming to be front running contenders.
Oxford Tavern in Wollongong and Belmorgan Property Developments are proud supporters of both Hunt and Kosseris.