An Ely racing driver scored his first British GT Championship podium finish at the weekend.

Fox Motorsport driver Mark Murfitt, alongside teammate Michael Broadhurst, scored their first podium finish of the 2018 British GT Championship with a strong performance at Snetterton on Sunday.

The team from Maldon, Essex, finished third in the GT4 Pro-Am division with their Mercedes-AMG GT4 in what was only their third event back in the series after a two-year break from full-time British GT competition.

Mark Murfitt said: “I’m so happy with this result. It feels like we’ve been building towards this over the past few events and the spirit in the team has been incredible; we’ve all pulled together superbly to achieve this.

“It was always going to take a bit of time while the team learnt how to find the sweet spot of the Mercedes-AMG and while I learnt how to drive it, but I’m finding the set-ups more to my liking every weekend and I feel more comfortable with the car more ‘on-edge’ - and ultimately faster - as every event goes by.

“I didn’t stop on the right lap in Race One while the safety car was out, and that probably cost us a better finish, and I felt huge pressure in the late stages of Race Two, but managed to resist and finished third.”

Mark, from Ely, achieved a career-best third place on the GT4 Pro-Am grid for Race One while Michael placed fifth in the later session.

The first race produced a well-deserved fourth-place finish; Mark running in the top five for his stint, and Michael putting in one of his typical hard charges during the second half of the race to make up time lost during the pit window behind an ill-timed safety car.

Michael avoided a multi-car incident at the start of Race Two to run fifth for his stint, but typically swift pitwork from the Fox mechanics allowed Mark to take over the car and rejoin in third.

Despite coming under intense pressure for the position late in the race from three rival cars, Mark clung on decisively to take his first podium in British GT and give Michael his first rostrum finish of the season.

Mark and Michael have climbed to fourth place in the GT4 Pro-Am Drivers’ Championship with three of seven rounds completed. Fox Motorsport lie 10th in the GT4 Teams’ Championship, which combines competitors from the Pro-Am and Silver rankings to form an overall classification.

The next event is a three-hour race held on Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on June 9-10.