Matthew Rees will return to the GB3 Championship for the 2023 season, remaining with JHR Developments with whom the youngster claimed a maiden victory at Brands Hatch last year.
In just his first season of car racing in 2021, Matthew was outstanding in the F4 British Championship, securing the Drivers’ and Rookie titles, while helping JHR to the Teams’ honours in the process.
Moving up to GB3 in 2022, the 17-year-old finished on the podium on the opening weekend of the season at Oulton Park, adding pole positions and a race win on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in September, where he set the circuit’s fastest lap of the year and was named the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend.
Aiming for the overall title in 2023, Matthew, who is a member of the prestigious BRDC SuperStars programme, will continue to compete with JHR Developments, having built a strong relationship with the team over the past two years.
Matthew Rees said: “My aspiration for 2023 is to be consistently in the top three and challenge for the title. We had a great start to last year with a podium straight off the bat at Oulton Park, so I'm hoping to repeat that and continue the good form we had at the end of last season, as we had a win at Brands Hatch.
“We will have a lot more expectation than last year, so we need to live up to that. However, we have the experience of knowing the car and how it handles in a race and working with the engineers to develop the things that we like, so we should have a strong start to the year. I know the team really well and the team knows me really well, so we know how to get on with each other. I have to give Steven Hunter a lot of credit as he does know how to make a car go fast.
“Looking at the calendar, Zandvoort will be interesting. It means we have three F1 venues on the calendar, so it's quite nice to be racing on those circuits and getting experience, because as we move on up the ladder we can use that experience to our advantage.”
JHR Developments Team Principal Steven Hunter said: “We’re very happy to have Matthew back with the team for the third-straight season. We’ve known about his skill and talent from as far back as 2020, when he started testing with us in F4 machinery, and of course we had that incredible season in the F4 British Championship, winning the Drivers’, Rookie, and Teams’ Championship titles with him.
“Last year in the GB3 Championship he showed his ability again, claiming an opening weekend podium and adding double pole position and our maiden series victory at Brands Hatch. With three drivers in the team this year we’ll have triple the data to work with and that means we’re feeling confident about how we will do, though of course we’ll keep working hard every weekend to achieve our goals together.”
For more championship information visit www.gb-3.net.