KCMG Team Manager Matt Howson Reflects On The Rolex 24 Hours

One of the standout performers, and almost a class winner, at the 2022 Rolex 24 Hours, was the #2 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3 R, the Hong Kong-flagged outfit making their debut at Daytona and leading the race in the new GTD Pro class for hour after hour with the final hour, that saw Laurents Vanthoor do (literal) battle with Pfaff Motorsports’ Matthieu Jaminet for the class win sure to feature in the Daytona history books as an all-time classic.

Whilst the final result (third in class after a final lap contact) was not the class win that the team, and their charismatic owner Paul Ip, had been hoping for – the reality is that it cemented a reputation for the team in one of the most competitive paddocks on the planet.

As the DSC Editor sat down for a post-race chat, there was steady stream of team members, drivers, owners etc popping by to offer the KCMG crew congratulations on a battle well fought.

Not a few of those good wishes went the way of Team Manager Matt Howson, a man whose career has been tied in with the team for almost a decade and a half initially as a driver, taking race wins in junior and middle-ranking single seaters, before becoming part of the KCMG team’s LMP2 effort that led, ultimately, to a famous class win at Le Mans in 2015, the team in contention for WEC world titles for two consecutive seasons.

His driving career for the team continued until recently with a TCR campaign in Super Taikyu, but latterly he has been responsible for pulling together the strands that make up an international race team and making that effot happen, miles, ore even continents away from home base:

Matt, I know there is disappointment in the ultimate result but how do you think you’ll look back on the experience of this event?

“I think the important thing was we didn’t leave anything on the table.

“That, I think, was so evident in the final battle which we kind of knew was likely coming the way that the race was playing out.

“The race was between two cars predominantly with a couple of threats from Lexus and Ferrari. But sure enough, after 23 hours we were together with Pfaff. And I think we had the edge on them.

“There was one particular stint where we lost the track position. And that was where, unfortunately, it was all up to Laurents to claw it back and boy did he try!

“In the end, the pitstop guys always kept us on a par but we just didn’t quite have the speed when it was needed at the end.

“I suppose though that the best thing was that for everybody watching, they saw what racing is all about, which is that you do everything you can to get the win.

“In the end Laurents took himself out of the win by trying to go for the win, and didn’t take the winner out in doing so. And in this case IMSA said “no investigation necessary”. It is what it is.

“So from our point of view, and looking back not just at the last 15 minutes, but the whole of the last week here it really has been a stunning debut!”

There were two stunning debuts here:

One was for KCMG putting that calling card down and beating the logistical and competitive odds;

The other was the GTD Pro class, there were some doubts about the class coming into the race week – the way in which you might interact with the GTD class in particular.

Talk a little bit about those two factors. This was one hell of a calling card for KCMG and what you can do in the future?

“Absolutely, if you want to be a competitive customer on the world stage, to be able to do it with a marque such as Porsche, and to do it coming into the championship where they do a very good job in terms of equalising the field, that’s no small task.

“But that’s why we are here, that’s what we all want. We all relish that kind of competition, both with the other Porsche teams as well as the huge inter-brand competition. So to see that all work so well and play out in what was effectively a 24 hour sprint race, that everyone had an exciting climax to, epitomises, I think, certainly why I love racing, and why my team owner loves racing.

“You win together, you lose together, and you have a hell of a time doing whichever one comes out of the mix!”

It was very busy out there, we have very mixed weather conditions, freezing cold last night, and a race peppered with cautions and penalties. I didn’t see a single problem for the #2 KCMG car?

“I think that’s really is a testament to the ability we’ve got within the team in terms of car preparation.

“Whether it’s the Spa 24, Nurburgring, 24 and the NLS in 2021, we do not have a single reliability issue. That kind of sets the bar by which we have to do everything.

“So coming here, preparing the car back in Germany and shipping it, then putting new equipment on, it was a test of all of that. And we didn’t have a single car failure here, a single penalty. There were penalties flying left, right and centre but we didn’t have a single breach of the sporting regulations or anything like that.

“So that again is something which we have to be proud of, because in any of these events that are new to you, this is what can trip you up. In our case, we had the performance in the car, the performance of the whole team, and almost the perfect final result. But I think when we reflect on it or look at all of the positives, we’ll look back at our immediate disappointment and find some massive positives which are that we can take on a new series, turn up like we’ve always been here and contribute to the show.”

KCMG’s 2022 programme will be announced soon. But a race like this, and a result like this, must be a boost after what’s been a tough couple of years for everybody?

“I think for a brand and a team like KCMG that had some success in WEC, it’s been a number of years since the team’s actually had a genuinely high profile.

“People know and are familiar with our past record. But to be considered as a team that can really set an example on preparation and results, that’s something which has been missing since the WEC days.

“So it’s great to come back to that. Because again, for the guys working here, they don’t do it principally for the money, you do it for the experience and for the pride that we feel when we all do well. That’s what, as a team, we showed here.

“The level we produced here this weekend is an example of what we have, and of the way that KCMG goes about racing.

It is particularly tough to activate resource from certain parts of the world right now. How much tougher was this programme that it might have been pre-COVID?

“It’s hard for me to say because I have only ever known managing a race team in COVID! So in a lot of ways, it was a baptism of fire, in the deep end, pick whichever metaphor you want! Certainly there has been unwavering support from Paul (Ip) as we moved fast to adapt to all of the emerging (and rapidly changing) challenges.

“So in a lot of ways it was everything we expected. We had shipping delays, COVID protocols to deal with, travel restrictions and other things that always puts more pressure on the human resources.

“But it’s a kind of a reflection, again, of what we dealt with in 2021. What we never did was to allow this to beat the programme.

“That would have been easy to do at several points, but everyone pulled together through the challenges and produced the effort that you, and everyone else, has seen here.

Everything we did was pre-planned, pre-organised and then executed and that, in a way, means that in the post-COVID pandemic world we should be very confident that if we take on larger projects that we can deliver the same level of preparation and result.