Hong Kong’s Matthew Marsh is having a busy time juggling his position as a motor sport journalist with racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup in Asia – and now in the UK. The Asia series kicked-off in support of the Malaysian Grand Prix last month with Marsh taking fifth place before filing his Formula 1 report for the South China Morning Post.

(from left: Peter Windsor, Rob Wilson and Matthew - photo Ian Haynes-Bowers)

Two weeks later, checking-in for the flight home from the Bahrain Grand Prix last Monday, he received a telephone call from Alan Gow who runs the TOCA Tour – Britain’s premier racing series which includes the Carrera Cup GB. “Alan knew how keen I was to race again in the UK and put me forward to Porsche,” says Marsh who has lived in Hong Kong for 14 years.  

(The Porsche Cars GB entry in Martini livery - showing damage from the first corner crash - photo Paul Cherry)

“Matthew has been in touch quite often since taking pole position in the Carrera Cup race at Macau last year,” says Porsche’s Marion Barnaby. “He knows the cars and was an obvious choice.” So the 35-year old flew eight hours east to Hong Kong from Bahrain, packed his racing gear, rushed to a photo shoot with A-Ha coffee, the sponsor of his Porsche in Asia, then grabbed Cathay Pacific’s last flight to London – flying 12 hours westwards.  

(The first corner crash - Matthew is directly behind David Pinkney's car as it becomes airborne...)

“My only visit to Thruxton was back in 1986. I was appalling then and I wasn’t much better in testing on Wednesday,” admitted Marsh on Sunday night. “The team were very patient and helped me get over the jet-lag and onto the pace.” After qualifying a disappointing 13th (“I got everything wrong!”) and then being held-up in a start line incident, Marsh finished ninth in the first round and sixth in the second. His lap times in the second race were on par with the winner, Tim Harvey – victor of the Macau Grand Prix Guia race in 1989 - and he was quickest overall over the second half of the track. "It was a big ask to expect Matthew to come to terms with Britain's fastest race track so quickly," says Porsche's Barnaby. "He did a good job."

(Matthew, to the left of the pink coloured car, get pushed onto the grass - photo Paul Cherry)

“Being invited to drive by Porsche is a dream come true. The car was liveried with Martini stripes, just like the ones I watched as a kid in the 1970s,” reflects Marsh who is already on his way back to Hong Kong in preparation for this weekend’s 1000 kilometre race at Zhuhai.