Matt Griffin (racing driver)

Matthew John Griffin (born 1 October 1982) is an Irish racing driver set to compete in the British GT Championship for Barwell Motorsport and the European Le Mans Series for Spirit of Race.

A Ferrari specialist in sports car racing, Griffin boasts titles in ELMS, British GT and the Blancpain Endurance Series, class victories at the 24 Hours of Spa and an overall win at the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours. He has twice won in the FIA World Endurance Championship, both at Silverstone in LMGTE Am.

Griffin made his single-seater debut in 2001, racing for Manor Motorsport in Formula Renault 2.0 UK. After two years in the championship, Griffin switched to the British GT Championship, racing for Tech 9 Motorsport in the GT Cup class. In his first season in the series, Griffin won the GT Cup title after taking eight wins in 11 races.

During the following four seasons, Griffin raced part-time in the series for Emotional Engineering and Team RPM, along with a one-off appearance in Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain in 2007. Griffin then returned to full-time British GT Championship competition in 2008, racing in the GT3 class for Chad Racing. However, that year was headlined by Griffin's maiden campaign in International GT Open, where he won at Monza with Advanced Engineering, as he began a long-term relationship with the Ferrari brand. He returned for the 2009 International GT Open season, but his biggest highlight that year came with Mtech Racing in the British GT Championship, winning at Silverstone alongside Duncan Cameron.

In 2010, Griffin joined AF Corse in GT Open and Mtech Racing in British GT. In the former, he ran in the Super GT class for all but one rounds and was 22nd in points, otherwise winning at Brands Hatch in a one-off GTS appearance for Mtech. In the latter, he won both races at Oulton Park and race two at Snetterton to secure third in points. For 2011, Griffin expanded his Mtech commitments to the FIA GT3 European Championship but enjoyed more success at national level, placing fifth in the British GT Championship with a win at Spa. He also linked up with AF Corse in the new Blancpain Endurance Series, scoring a Pro-Am podium at the marquee 24 Hours of Spa.

Griffin started off 2012 by winning the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours alongside Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini, before joining the pair for a dual European Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship programme. While they missed out on the ELMS title after retiring at Petit Le Mans, they did achieve a landmark WEC victory at Silverstone. Griffin also won once in British GT at the Nürburgring en route to fourth in the standings.

Kicking off 2013 with a second-place finish at the Bathurst 12 Hour for Clearwater Racing, Griffin returned to AF Corse for the rest of the year, racing with them in the LMGTE Am class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, along with a part-time schedule in International GT Open. In WEC, Griffin took class podiums at Le Mans and Bahrain on his way to ninth in the LMGTE Am standings, whereas in GT Open, Griffin took four wins and placed fifth in the Super GT standings. Griffin and Cameron also featured at the 2013 24 Hours of Spa, where they, along with Alex Mortimer and works driver Toni Vilander, claimed a historic Pro-Am victory and fifth place overall aboard their Ferrari 458 Italia GT3. The icing on the cake would come in the European Le Mans Series with Ram Racing, as Griffin and Johnny Mowlem won three out of the five races and finished no lower than second in the other two to clinch the GTE title.

Griffin returned to Ram Racing for his LMGTE Pro debut in the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, but when that program was cut short due to a lack of funding three races in, Griffin returned to AF Corse to race in both the European Le Mans Series and International GT Open. Racing in the LMGTE class in ELMS, Griffin won at Silverstone, Red Bull Ring and Le Castellet to end the season runner-up by 3.5 points. In 2015, Griffin remained with AF Corse to race in both the European Le Mans Series and the Blancpain Endurance Series. In the former, he scored podiums at Silverstone and Red Bull Ring to finish third in LMGTE, whereas in the latter, he took the Pro-Am title despite not taking any class wins in the five-race season.

Staying with AF Corse for 2016, Griffin raced with them in both the European Le Mans Series and the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. He clinched back-to-back podiums in the final two races of the former to end the season sixth in the GTE standings, but only managed one Pro-Am class podium in the latter. At the end of the year, Griffin raced for Clearwater Racing in the 2016–17 Asian Le Mans Series, taking a lone podium at Zhuhai en route to a fifth-place points finish.

In 2017, Griffin reunited with Clearwater Racing for his full-time return to FIA World Endurance Championship competition, whilst he and Cameron joined AF Corse satellite squad Spirit of Race in both the European Le Mans Series and the British GT Championship. In WEC, Griffin won at Silverstone and scored five more class podiums to end the year a career-best third in GTE Am. With Spirit of Race, Griffin won at both Red Bull Ring and Le Castellet to finish fourth in ELMS, while taking two overall podiums in British GT at Rockingham, where Griffin lost his only win due to a post-race penalty, and Silverstone on his way to seventh in points.

In 2018, Griffin raced for AF Corse in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and Spirit of Race in the LMGTE class of the European Le Mans Series. In the former, he took a Pro-Am win at Le Castellet and two further podiums to finish runner-up in class at season's end. In the latter, he won at Monza and took three more podiums to end the year fifth in the LMGTE standings. Griffin then rejoined Clearwater Racing to tackle the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship. In the series' "Super Season", Griffin finished third at both Spa rounds as well as the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans en route to a fifth-place points finish in LMGTE Am, in the team's last season in motorsports. During 2019, Griffin also competed in the European Le Mans Series and International GT Open for Spirit of Race, registering a pair of LMGTE podiums in the former and winning once at Hockenheimring in a reduced Pro-Am schedule in the latter.

In 2020, Griffin and Cameron, together with Aaron Scott, won once in the European Le Mans Series at Le Castellet to come third in LMGTE, some 37 points behind a dead heat between the Proton Competition Porsche and Kessel Racing Ferrari. A part-time effort in the British GT Championship yielded little in the way of results. The pair continued in the European Le Mans Series in 2021 with a new silver-graded teammate, David Perel. They took three podiums in the first three races, but the death of his father led Griffin to miss the round at Monza and give up his title hopes. Perel and Cameron were runners-up. That year, Griffin and Cameron also combined for a part-time GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup schedule with AF Corse, steering their Ferrari 488 GT3 to a second Pro-Am win at the 24 Hours of Spa, with the help of Rino Mastronardi and factory driver Miguel Molina.

Scaling back to just European Le Mans with Spirit of Race for 2022, Griffin and his teammates stood on the podium twice to end up tenth in points despite skipping the final two rounds. In the last ever year of LMGTE regulations in 2023, the trio improved to fifth with a podium at the season finale. Griffin stayed put with Spirit of Race in ELMS in 2024, regressing to ninth in the standings but winning at Le Castellet as he learned the Ferrari 296 in the new LMGT3 class. Griffin remained in the European Le Mans Series in 2025, whilst also returning to the British GT Championship after a five-year hiatus. In his 12th full-time season in ELMS, Griffin scored a lone podium at Imola by finishing third in LMGT3 to end the year sixth in points.

The following year, Griffin joined Lamborghini-linked Barwell Motorsport to race in the British GT Championship, as well as returning to Spirit of Race for another season in the European Le Mans Series.

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† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

• Matt Griffin career summary at DriverDB.com