Rob Collard and Hugo Cook claimed a second British GT victory of the season in dominant fashion at Donington Park, with the result putting Barwell Motorsport into the championship driving seat.
A superb performance across mixed conditions from the #63 Collard Group/J&S Accessories/Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila drivers elevated Collard and Cook into the GT3 Drivers’ Championship lead with a single race remaining later this month.
Allied to that, Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski again battled the odds to score another Silver-Am podium and extend their class points lead – a result that wouldn’t have been possible without the drivers’ gritty determination after an early setback for the #78 DexNET Lighting Controls/DAW/T4 Intelligent Infrastructure/Dama Fortuna-backed crew.
The combined scores across the cars also put Barwell on the verge to what would be an historic eighth GT3 Teams’ Championship.
Barwell’s twin Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s marked themselves out as contenders from the very start of the weekend, with both cars being near constants inside the top five. This pace translated into Qualifying on Saturday too, with Collard and Cook claiming second on the grid, just a fraction ahead of Martin and Waberski in third.
Come Sunday, hopes were high of a solid score, but British GT at Donington rarely makes for a straightforward race, and both sides of the garage had to overcome a host of challenges to score big.
Rain before the start led to the cars heading out to a soaking wet track, with the entire GT3 grid opting for wet tyres despite the returning sunshine meaning a crossover point to slicks was likely to appear before the pit window.
Through the spray, Collard got a superb start, sliding around the outside of the pole-sitting Century Motorsport BMW to claim the lead. Martin attempted to do likewise, getting a run up the inside of the M4 before being squeezed onto the grass, delayed and doing well to recover back to fourth.
This set the early order, with Collard leading from the BMW of Jonathon Beeson, Marc Warren’s Optimum McLaren and Martin. Soon though traffic would begin to provide pinch points, and it was one of these that delayed Martin.
When the leaders ran through McLeans they encountered a lapped Ferrari at the tightest part of the track. A nudge from another car into the corner sent Martin wide and as he attempted to run around the outside of the Ferrari there was contact and both cars speared off into the gravel. Ordinarily, cars that deep into the gravel stay there, but Martin kept his head, managed to engage reverse and somehow crawled the Huracan back onto the track.
Damaged, but still running, Martin then went on an impressive comeback mission which included setting the fastest lap of the race as he charged to re-catch the pack.
Up front Collard managed to stretch his lead to over seven seconds by the time the opportunity to pit for slicks emerged and the Barwell crew executed a fine stop. When he rejoined he resisted pressure from reigning champion Charles Dawson – who had made up a chunk of time by stopping his 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG earlier for slicks.
Collard managed to reestablish an advantage of almost two seconds when the time came to hand to Cook and a textbook stop got the drivers switched, fresh slicks bolted on and the car back out still ahead.
From there, Cook proved untouchable, pumping in a series of rapid laps to tour clear of his pursuers and eventually win by over 15 seconds. It was a crushing performance, and one that backed up his and Collard’s title-challenging credentials. The pair were also presented with the Tom Wheatcroft Memorial Trophy on the podium – the prize named in honour of the late president of Donington Park.
Martin and Waberski’s recovery was just as impressive. With his pace bringing the #78 back into the picture, Martin also swapped for slicks on the same lap as Collard, going on to again light up the timing screens. The car was back inside the top six come the pit window but would again be set back by a 10 second penalty for its earlier incident. Despite the longer stop, Waberski took over and pushed as hard as he could, effectively managing the traffic and setting lap times comparable to the leaders despite the frontal aero damage the car was carrying. His reward was fifth place overall and second in class, aided by a penalty for the #90 McLaren ahead.
The points haul moved both cars to the head of the GT3 Drivers’ Championship, with Collard and Cook leading Martin and Waberski by 15.5pts with only the season finale at Brands Hatch remaining. Allied to that, Martin and Waberski extended their Silver-Am Championship lead to 27pts after trouble for their closest class rivals, a great reward for their efforts. Barwell Motorsport also streaked clear in the Teams’ Championship, leading by 58.5pts from Optimum Motorsport.
“I’m delighted. I knew I had to get past the BMW quickly to stand a chance and managed to do that right at the start and then it was just about managing the tyres as we knew the wets wouldn’t last. The turning point came quite quickly, and we perhaps could have stopped a lap or two earlier for slicks, but it didn’t matter because the car was just so good and Hugo was exceptional. The whole team has done an amazing job this weekend and now we get to go to Brands, drive the wheels off it and see if this championship is meant to be.”
“That was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I knew we needed to win this weekend if we wanted to be in the title fight and we executed everything perfectly, from the strategy to the stops and the driver stints. It was flawless. But perhaps even more impressive was the fact that we came into the weekend struggling a bit and we worked a lot on the car setup and it felt better than ever in the race. Huge thanks to the team.”
“There was a fair bit of luck involved this weekend, both good and bad, but we’re still in the fight and that’s what matters. The way the race panned out was pretty tough so I have mixed feeling about it all as things could have been better, but they also could have been worse. I had to be so gentle getting the car out of the gravel in reverse, but managed to do it and from there it was nothing to lose and I pushed like mad because we no longer needed to save the tyres. Jarrod did a great job despite the aero damage we had and we got a result out of it.”
“It’s been another bit of damage limitation for us. My stint was just about keeping the car going round and seeing what we could score because the car had picked up a bit of damage so it was tricky. It’s a shame as we had the pace this weekend but we’re still in the hunt, we just need to iron out a few things to bring home the bigger points. From a team point of view though it’s been a superb weekend and I’m really happy for all the guys.”
“Donington Park was an exceptional team effort, and to be leading three different championships heading into the final round is a testament to the hard work everybody is putting in this season. I’m delighted for Rob and Hugo, you could see their hunger from the start of the weekend and they drove superbly in tricky circumstances and didn’t put a wheel wrong. They fully deserved the win and go to Brands with a great chance of getting the job done. Alex and Jarrod had a tougher weekend, but so often in motorsport it’s not the mistakes you make that matter most, it’s how you react to them. Alex shook off the early incident, recovered the car and drove an impressive stint to claw back time. Jarrod has been a model pro all season and never let his head drop, showing impressive speed despite the car carrying aero damage. The fact they extended their class championship lead just shows where sheer determination can get you! It’s been a great weekend overall and we go to Brands Hatch in a very strong position.”
