Porsche championship win is feather in cap for Sussex ace Bird

After a flying start to the championship in which he claimed 3 wins and 4 second places from 8 starts to lead the ProAm category at the mid point in the season by a huge margin, the second half of the year proved very challenging for the 23 year old from Chidham near Chichester.

It started at a very wet and windy Knockhill circuit in Scotland, a trip to the gravel in race 1 and a great recovery in race 2 resulted in a 3rd place podium and a slightly reduced lead in the championship.

After Knockhill it was back to Donington where the season had started and Max was back on form and was the quickest Pro Am driver in qualifying and took a 2nd place podium in race 1, but disaster struck in race 2 when a car that he was following closely hit the tyre barrier at the chicane, dislodged the tyres into Max’s path and put him out of the race and a certain second podium of the weekend. If that wasn’t bad enough, the damage to the car meant that Max missed the test session for the next round at Silverstone, which proved to be a significant handicap.

The penultimate round on the short Silverstone National circuit proved to be a low point of the season, having missed the test session Max’s found himself 2.5/10ths second off the pace all weekend, which whilst this doesn’t sound much was enough to drop him back to 6th place Pro Am in qualifying and on such as short track with all the cars so close in lap times he found it difficult to make up places and ended up without a podium finish for the first time in 2023 and with a reduced lead in the championship.

Max went into the final round of the championship at the challenging Brands Hatch GP circuit with a lead of 18 points over his main rival. With a potential 24 points available for the weekend he couldn’t afford to relax or make a mistake.

After a problem with the brakes in practice Max came back in qualifying to be 3rd quickest in the ProAm category, but his rival was quickest and earned 2 points as a result, reducing Max’s lead to 16 points. Race 1 went to his main rival after a lengthy safety car period with Max taking 3rd place, reducing his lead to just 11 points, which meant that if his rival won the Pro Am category in the 2nd race and Max didn’t finish he would lose the championship. Max just needed 1 more point to secure the championship and his luck held out, his rival didn’t win and Max finished in a safe 5th place and clinched the prestigious Porsche Carrera Cup GB Pro Am Championship for 2023 at his first attempt.

When asked how he would sum up this year's racing Max said "I fought very hard throughout the year and I am thrilled to have won the Porsche championship, I can hardly believe it! I had a great team behind me, I couldn’t have done it without them and the support of all my sponsors and especially my parents. I am now looking forward to the next step in my career".

Max received support in 2023 from local companies, including Seaward Properties, Bluebird Developments, Artec Engineering and the Goodwood Health club and is proud to be involved with the local charity Dementia Support.

Max hopes to continue his success next season, to find out more about sharing in Max’s success on the race track and the partnership opportunities available to businesses, contact Max’s marketing team at [email protected] or visit his website at www.maxbirdracing.com/partnerships.

You can follow Max’s progress at www.maxbirdracing.com or on Instagram: maxbirdracing, X: @maxbirdracing or on Facebook: maxbirdracing