Barwell Motorsport bounced back to winning form in the British GT Championship round at Oulton Park last weekend, adding another victory to its long list of success at the Cheshire circuit.
Rob Collard and Hugo Cook ignited their campaign with a breakthrough victory in race one, with both drivers staving off intense pressure across the two halves in the #1 Collard Group/J&S Accessories/Lady Luck Irish Whiskey Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. In doing so, it extended Barwell’s impressive record at Oulton to nine wins from the 20 British GT races held at the venue since the team partnered with Lamborghini Squadra Corse back in 2016.
Despite constantly shifting weather conditions turning the second race into a pure gamble, Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell finished an otherwise challenging weekend with a handful of points in the #78 Dextra Group PLC/RHM Forestry Ltd/Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila Huracan, keeping Martin firmly in the championship picture.
Collard and Cook got the weekend underway in stunning fashion by keeping up Barwell Motorsport’s excellent record at the Chesire track to record both their first win of the season, and Cook’s first-ever outright British GT win.
Collard shone during an exceptionally tight qualifying session on Saturday, beating Giacomo Petrobelli’s Blackthorn Aston Martin by just 0.014s to steal pole position. With overtaking a challenge at Oulton, the grid slot would prove crucial to the result, even if Petrobelli would make Collard work hard to hold on to it.
The Aston got the marginally better start when the race went green on Monday morning, but Collard held his nerve and scraped back through to lead, but rarely had more than a few lengths’ advantage over the chasing Vantage throughout the opening half. A heavy crash for a GT4 car shortly before the pit window prevented Collard from pulling any gap before pitting to hand to Cook, with the team opting to fit fresh Pirellis to optimise grip over the second half and go for the win. The following safety car meant Cook rejoined with Mercedes-AMG factory driver Maximilian Götz right on his tail, followed by Aston Martin works veteran Jonny Adam, now in the Blackthorn Vantage.
Cook bolted at the restart and managed to forge a small gap over Götz, before the German fought back to pile the pressure on the #1 Lamborghini. However, Cook showed his star potential in full to stave off the pressure and take the flag to rapturous applause from the team on the pitwall.
Martin and Mitchell managed to bag a useful haul of points from an otherwise difficult race. Martin admitted to not maximising his quali run and started sixth, however he was hit wide through turn one and endured a rough ride through the gravel before rejoining seventh. Martin recovered to make up a spot after the Orange Racing McLaren was tipped round, handing across to Mitchell. In a reverse of the #1’s strategy, Mitchell opted to fit scrubbed tyres and save the fresh rubber for race two when they will enjoy the benefit of starting second. Mired in traffic and with overtaking difficult, there wasn’t much Mitchell could do so sixth at the flag was the limit, although the car was promoted to fifth due to a penalty for the #42 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG.
With the pro drivers qualifying for race two, Mitchell did a superb job to place the #78 on the front row and the signs were good for a potential Barwell double in the finale. However, the great British weather and sheer bad luck had other ideas.
Rain before the start meant the field lined up on a wet but drying track, and once racing got underway conditions were already marginal between wet or slick Pirellis. Cook had qualified the #1 seventh and was in a prime position to gamble, making the call to pit for slicks early on. Cook rejoined and immediately lit up the timing screens, so the decision was taken to follow suit with the #78, Mitchell stopping from second to fit dry rubber. However, this was where the race turned when, just as both Barwell cars became the fastest things out there, the rain returned and robbed them of grip.
Cook braved the worst of it before handing to Collard when the track was again ready for slicks, and they would at least salvage a point for a top-10 finish. Mitchell and Martin’s race was tougher, with Mitchell stopping again to revert to wets to try and limit the damage and dropping a lap down. They would finish a disappointing and undeserving 12th.
The results mean Cook runs fourth in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship, a place ahead of Martin with both drivers still well within striking distance of the top spots. Barwell Motorsport retains second in the Teams’ Championship.
“I’m delighted with how this weekend went for us. To get my first win is just amazing, the feeling when I crossed the line was just great and I want more like that. Rob did a great job all weekend and was superb in the first race, then race two we just got unlucky. I made the call to switch to slicks and for a while it looked absolutely bang on but then the rain return4ed and undid us. We still learned things from that race, and most of the championship contenders didn’t get a big score, so things are wide open heading to Spa.”
“That was a great weekend, and a nice one for me because I felt fully back in the flow in the car for the first time. That win came in only my second race back, so to get a pole and then convert it to the win was special. I was also so pleased for Hugo as he drove brilliantly against some seriously quick Pros and showed exactly what he’s about. We now go to Spa with no success penalty, and with another chance for a big score. It would be great to get Hugo into a championship-challenging position.”
“We’re a team that tries to race and tries to move forward, and we’ll always stick to that philosophy. I saw a gap at the start of race one and went for it, but it didn’t work out and we lost some ground that was hard to recover. Race two was our real chance but we just got unlucky. We saw the slick was quicker at that moment so we thought ‘let’s race it out and try and go for the win’, but sometimes moves like that are a bit all or nothing. We came here to try and win it just didn’t work out on this occasion.”
“For the positives, I was really happy with my qualifying performance and I think generally the team did a very good job this weekend to put us in the position to score some big points. Race one was always just about scoring some points, and the target was always to go and win race two, but for various reasons that didn’t work out. We rolled the dice and probably shouldn’t have, but sometimes the percentage game can catch you out. We’ll learn from this and come back stronger.”
“Oulton was a real weekend of two halves for us. On one side I was delighted to see Rob and Hugo get their first win as a pairing. It was a special result for both drivers; great for Rob to get back to winning ways so quickly after his delayed start to the season and for Hugo it just proved that he’s a real rising star with a bright future. I am sure that this will be the first of many for him. It was also superb to keep up our scoring streak at Oulton Park. Since we partnered with Lamborghini 10 years ago, we have won almost half the races held here across that time, which is quite remarkable.
“On the other side we endured a difficult second race, when we should have been fighting for a second victory with the #78. We called the conditions as we saw them and in hindsight replicating the strategy to stop for slicks across both cars was an error. But I have no doubt we have the potential in the drivers, team and cars to recover from this. There’s a lot of racing left in this championship, and we’ll be back fighting at Spa, with both cars running free of success penalties and with every opportunity to score big.”
