Matt George

Matthew George (born 16 July 1995) is a British racing driver. He started his motor racing career karting in 2007, becoming Midland Karting Champion in 2010. before moving up to car racing in 2016.
George worked as a technician and driver coach at Base Performance Simulators, a racing simulator company led by three-time Le Mans winning Aston Martin factory driver, Darren Turner. George coached Superdry co-founder James Holder at Base Performance, working closely with him for six months before Holder made the decision to form racing team SuperRacing and signed George as the teams pro driver. George and Holder competed as a Pro-Am partnership within the British GT4 Championship, GT4 European Series, FFSA GT Championship, and Gulf 12 Hours.
George currently holds 5 GT4 lap records - Donington Park, Circuit Paul Ricard, Yas Marina Circuit and 2 at the home of British racing - Silverstone.
A notable moment within George's racing career has been his involvement in the Invictus Games Racing team, helping a select group of wounded, injured and sick (WIS) British Armed Forces veterans to compete in the 2018 British GT Championship.
== Invictus Games Racing ==
A select group of wounded, injured and sick (WIS) veterans of the British Armed Forces competed in the 2018 British GT Championship as part of a motor racing team in specially-designed Jaguar race cars.
Invictus Games Racing was a collaboration between James Holder and the Invictus Games Foundation. The team's mission was to give (WIS) servicemen/woman the chance to experience the adrenaline of competitive racing embracing the ethos of the Invictus Games of triumph over adversity.
Mission Motorsport, The Forces' Motorsport Charity, held trials to select four drivers from the Armed Forces who were best suited for the experience. George and professional racing driver Jason Wolfe were then partnered with the amateur drivers to mentor and coach them as is protocol in the British GT Championship series. George coached Steve McCulley and Paul Vice who raced in car 44, while Jason coached Ben Norfolk and Basil Rawlinson in Car 22. 
George was also the development driver for the 2 bespoke Jaguar F-TYPE SVR racing cars built by Jaguar's Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) which the team entered into the championship. The bespoke Jaguar's were the first SVO-designed race cars to hit a race track, adapted for the four (WIS) drivers allowing them to compete equally with their able-bodied competitors. 
== 2016 season ==
=== British GT Championship ===
In 2016 George made his debut season car racing contesting in the 2016 British GT4 Championship after gaining his full International race license within 2 months of first sitting in a race car. He won Top Rookie in the pro-am category competing as the Pro driver of an Aston Martin Vantage, with James Holder as the Am driver.
=== Gulf 12 Hours ===
In December 2016, George went to the United Arab Emirates with SuperRacing to round off his debut season by competing in the Gulf 12 Hour Race at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, sharing the Generation AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4 with James Holder & Britcar champion Chris Murphy. George set the fastest (GT4) qualifying lap of 2:20.697 putting the car on pole in the GTX category. Despite setting the fastest lap of the race, the team narrowly missed out on a podium, finishing 4th in class.
== 2022 season ==
=== Venture Innovations ===
After 2 seasons out of racing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, George made a return to racing as the development driver and team manager for a New to 2022 race team - Venture Innovations, an engineering company who fabricate components for F1 cars. George helped Venture develop their customers Aston Martin Vulcan track day car to be able to compete as an endurance race car, which George successfully managed when it contested in the 2022 British Endurance Championship. 
=== British Endurance Championship ===
Along side managing the team, George contested 3 rounds of the 2022 British Endurance Championship in a Mercedes AMG GT4 in class D, coaching co-driver Neville Jones through his debut GT car races. The duo had a podium finish in all three rounds and George attained two lap records. He became the new GT4 Qualifying Lap Record holder on the Silverstone GP circuit on his first race weekend in the Mercedes AMG GT4. He then became the new GT4 Lap Record holder at Donington Park on the GP circuit in October.
== 2023 season ==
=== British Endurance Championship ===
George is set to contest a full season with team Venture Innovations in the British Endurance Championship in the Mercedes AMG GT4 with co-driver Neville Jones and his son Chris. This will be Chris' debut GT car racing season and Neville's first full season. The new championship regulations will not allow the professional drivers within teams to take part in qualifying in 2023 year, so he will only be able to take part in the actual race. 
Round 1 at Silverstone seen the team start the race in 20th position due to a challenging qualifying, George made up 8 places and the team finished 2nd in class. George became the new Silverstone GP GT4 Lap Record Holder with a time of 2:09.403.
== Lap records ==
=== Race lap records ===
Date 	Circuit 	Lap time	Team 	Car 	Class	Championship 	Race
Dec 16, 2017 	Yas Marina Circuit	2:20.941	Generation AMR SuperRacing	Aston Martin Vantage GT4	GT4 	2017 Gulf 12 Hours 	
Oct 22, 2022 	Donington Park GP 	1:34.856	Venture Innovations 	Mercedes AMG GT4 	GT4 	British Endurance Championship	Round 6
March 25, 2023	Silverstone GP 	2:09.403	Venture Innovations 	Mercedes AMG GT4 	GT4 	British Endurance Championship	Round 1
=== Qualifying lap records ===
Date 	Circuit 	Class	Lap time	Team 	Car 	Championship 	Race
June 1, 2019	Circuit Paul Ricard	GT4 	2:12.193	Generation AMR SuperRacing	Aston Martin Vantage GT4	GT4 European Series 	Round 4
June 6, 2022	Silverstone GP 	GT4 	2:08.556	Venture Innovations 	Mercedes AMG GT4 	British Endurance Championship	Round 4
Category:1995 births
Category:People from Cheltenham
Category:British people
Category:British racing drivers