Barwell Motorsport looked on course to continue its stunning start to the 2024 British GT Championship season at Silverstone, only for late misfortune to deny Rob and Ricky Collard what could have been a second win in three races.
The #63 Black Bull Scotch Whisky/Collard Group-backed Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo II was odds-on to score a superb win in the biggest race of the British GT season heading into the final stages of the race, only for a late safety car interruption to ruin their advantage. While the Collards did keep up Barwell’s incredible record at the Silverstone 500 by still finishing on the GT3 Pro-Am class podium, it was a tale of what could have been.
In a double dose of misfortune, the same caution period that denied the #63 was caused by an accident involving Barwell’s sister car, when an errant McLaren lost control and speared into the #78 Dextra Lighting-supported Huracan of Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell. While Martin emerged unharmed from the high-speed collision, the incident wrecked what had otherwise been a highly promising weekend for the crew.
Both of Barwell’s Lamborghinis showed great promise from early in the Silverstone weekend, with the #78 in particular lighting up the timing sheets during Saturday. After topping the pre-qualifying practice, Mitchell was the star of qualifying going fastest of all across the 41-car field to establish a new lap record, coincidentally breaking his own benchmark set at this event back in 2022. With the best times of each driver combined setting the grid for the three-hour race, Martin and Mitchell lined up second, with the Collards not far behind in seventh.
Given Barwell’s enviable record of excelling with strategy during endurance races, hopes were high ahead of the three-hour outing on Sunday, and for good reason as both cars took turns in the spotlight during what became a turbulent outing.
With persistent rain making conditions tough, the race began behind the safety car, and Barwell’s engineers quickly called both Huracans into the pits to tick off one of their three mandatory driver changes with the race at reduced speed. While that sacrificed track position initially, it gave strategic flexibility for later in the race.
Martin pitted for Mitchell and Rob for Ricky Collard and the cars rejoined in formation before carving their way back up the order, Mitchell running as high as third overall before making the car’s second stop to relay back to Martin. This is where the first blow to Barwell’s victory hopes came, as racing was neutralised by a full course yellow right after the #78 had pitted, essentially handing its rivals an advantage.
That did however play into the hands of the #63, allowing Ricky to hand back to Rob and the car to earn a chunk of time that would bring Rob up to third when he rejoined. He then hunted down Ian Loggie’s 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG and pulled a great move on the brakes into Brooklands to snatch second. Then, when the race-leading Century Motorsport BMW was forced to make an extra stop to refuel, the Collards found themselves in the box seat.
Rob built a gap of 14 seconds and looked set to hand across to Ricky still in the lead, when disaster struck. Martin had been bringing the #78 back up the order when he was the innocent victim of a clash with the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren, which ran wide at Copse, lost grip across the wet kerbing and slid back across the track into the side of Martin. Both drivers were unscathed, but the #78’s day was done.
That was also a crushing blow for the #63 as after an initial caution period, the safety car was called for the restart and bunched the pack, destroying Rob’s hard-earned advantage. The final blow was Rob being forced to stay on track for an agonising extra few minutes to ensure he completed his minimum drive time. When he could finally pit for Ricky, the race resumed and the car was dumped down the order inside the final half hour.
Regardless, Ricky showed great speed to catch up with the leading pack again, eventually crossing the line sixth overall and third of the Pro-Am runners to at least score some solid championship points. The car would later be bumped up to fifth overall when the Orange Racing McLaren has handed a penalty post-race.
The results mean the Collards sit second in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship, with Martin and Mitchell third, despite their non-score. Barwell Motorsport still holds a five-point lead at the head of the Teams' Championship.
“This is a sport of very fine margins, and we only got undone by one unfortunate safety car this weekend. When we won here in 2020 the foundation of that was pitting early, so it made sense to do so again, and the strategy was working out nicely, especially with the FCY going our way in the second stint. But then we got the flipside of that luck later on with the safety car that probably cost us the win. You can’t plan for things like that. Still, we scored good points, we’re still second in the championship and you can never sniff at a top five in the Silverstone 500.”
“The whole race was a heap of fun, and a real rollercoaster to be a part of. We came so close to the win… so close that if the full course yellow had run for two more laps, Dad could have pitted and stayed in the mix, or if the safety car had run for two more laps I could have caught the back of the pack sooner and fought to gain places back. But as it is, we still had a blast and the car was superb in the wet and the dry.”
“We had all the ingredients to enjoy a really strong weekend, with great pace in the car and a really good feeling in the setup in all conditions, but we just got undone by sheer bad luck: first with the timing of the safety cars, and second with the crash. I saw the McLaren go wide and was already past when he got on the painted kerb and lost it and we had nowhere to go. It’s just one of those things. We’ll reset and go again at Donington Park.”
“There are a load of positives to take from this weekend, even if the result isn’t one of them. To come away with a new qualifying lap record shows how strong the car is and that as a team we’ve really got on top of the setup of the Huracan GT3 Evo II. Strategy-wise we were on course to score well, even knowing we’d have an extra 20 seconds to spend in the pits on our final stop after the win last time out at Oulton Park. Then we just go unlucky. The main thing is Alex is OK, and if we’re going to have a bad race, one where we were up against it with the pit penalty anyway isn’t terrible as we can bounce back at the next one penalty free.”
“We’ve seen the ups and downs of this sport this weekend. On the one hand, we have to be proud that both of our cars fought so hard in the biggest race of the year. The pace across both was unquestionable, highlighted by Sandy shattering his own lap record in qualifying. We called the strategy well in the race, and came agonisingly close to what would have been a fifth Silverstone 500 win, only for fate to deny us. It’s a blow made even more bitter by how the weekend ended for the #78 crew. Most importantly is Alex is OK, and the car can be repaired. There’s a long way to go in this championship, and from the promise we’ve shown both this weekend and during the season-opener at Oulton Park, I have no doubt both our cars will be up there fighting for the title come the end of the season.”
