Barwell Motorsport brought home an impressive trophy haul from last weekend’s British GT Championship event at Snetterton, with both its crews fighting to podium finishes.
Both Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell and Rob Collard and Hugo Cook impressed across the twin sprint races in Norfolk, with both crews appearing on the Race 2 podium after a superb team display.
Martin and Mitchell also finished third in Race 1 aboard the Dextra Group PLC/RHM Forestry Ltd/Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila-backed Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, moving them within striking distance of the championship leaders.
Collard and Cook’s Collard Group/J&S Accessories/Lady Luck Irish Whiskey-supported car runs fourth, just a handful of points behind.
The race results may look easy on paper, but they came after a mighty team effort, with both of Barwell’s Lamborghinis overcoming adversity across the weekend.
The first, and perhaps foremost, difficulty was managing the heat. With air temperatures into the 30s and track temperatures hitting 40 degrees, getting the peak performance from both the Pirelli tyres and the 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10s in the Huracans would prove tricky.
In the conditions, the Lamborghinis could not match the front-engined Mercedes-AMGs that dominated both races, so the event became more about maximising what the team had available.
Saturday’s opening Practice and Pre-Qualifying sessions were used to refine the cars’ setup to the three-mile track ahead of Qualifying. However, with the Mercedes topping both it was clear the Lamborghinis faced a fight.
Collard and Martin took the wheel for the opening Qualifying segment, which would set the grid for Race 1. Despite having his initial effort scrubbed for track limits, Collard managed to improve on his final flier to ensure the #1 car would start fourth, whereas Martin lined up sixth after using the peak of his tyres early in the session.
The pro Qualifying session was no less fraught, with Mitchell securing third, despite being only 0.1s away from the ultimate best, while Cook would start eighth after admitting to some small errors. There would be forward progress across both races on Sunday though, when the slightly cooler temperatures would help.
As the lights went out for Race 1, Collard immediately looked to make up ground, pulling a superb move around the outside of the Wilson hairpin to snatch third from the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG driven by Kevin Tse. Martin also got away well, latching on to the rear of Tse to run fifth, and began to pile on the pressure.
Collard pressed on to try and harry the leaders, but a freak ABS glitch heading into the super-fast Brundle corner at the end of Snetterton’s longest straight meant the car was forced to skip across the runoff, rejoining safely right behind Martin. It cost a potential podium, but Rob’s swift reactions kept both Barwell cars in the game.
When the pit window arrived, both Barwell cars pitted in sync from fourth and fifth, with the #1 having a longer stop to both reset the ABS and serve the additional five seconds of compensation time following the team’s podium finish at Spa last time out. The compensation time for the Blackthorn Aston Martin ahead meant the #78 vaulted up the order after Martin swapped for Mitchell and the Barwell crew executed a perfectly timed service to get Mitchell up and running in a secure third.
Mitchell then closed in on the 2 Seas AMG, now in the hands of Maximilian Götz and did all he could to get by, but the Mercedes’ performance advantage prevented him from finding a way past, so a podium was the limit.
Things were more dramatic for the #1. Cook rejoined sixth and was forced to defend from the Orange Racing McLaren, which aggressively pushed the rear of the Huracan into Oggies corner, sending Cook off the road. He held the moment well and would continue to bag points for eighth place after the McLaren was penalised for its part in the incident.
With Mitchell starting the #78 third for the finale, hopes were high of yet more silverware, but an incredible team effort lead to both cars making it onto the rostrum and doubling Barwell’s joy.
Mitchell got a good start but became bottled up in third behind the Optimum McLaren of Marvin Kirchhöfer, the straight-line speed advantage of the British machine making it incredibly difficult to overtake. Sandy attacked repeatedly through the twistier middle sector, only to lose ground each time the cars hit the Bentley Straight.
The top three managed to pull clear of their pursuers, with Mitchell stopping to hand to Martin at mid-distance and the car serving its additional five seconds of compensation time before rejoining on the nose of its mandatory pit time. The fact the Mercedes running fourth earned itself a penalty for an out-of-position start meant Martin held third despite the longer stop, and without big pressure from behind.
That meant Martin could focus forward and continue the attack on the McLaren, now driven by Morgan Tillbrook. Clearly faster around much of the lap, Martin piled the pressure on Tillbrook, eventually breaking his defence with a great move to get alongside into the Agostini hairpin before holding his nerve and completing the pass bravely into the tight Hamilton left-hander. Second secured.
Even bigger drama was to come for the #1 behind, which staged an incredible late sprint to follow the sister car through. Cook had kept the car in a competitive position through a tough opening stint in traffic before handing to Collard. With no extra pit time, he rejoined fifth, picked up an extra place when the Team Parker Racing Porsche went off the road into Riches under pressure, and then carved into Tillbrook’s lead ahead. Eroding seconds every lap, Collard was soon all over the McLaren starting the final tour. Knowing he’d likely only get one chance, Collard launched a huge dive into Agostini, getting cleanly alongside the McLaren before squeeing his way through to a podium into Hamilton, just as Martin had done before, capping a superb final stint.
Both Barwell crews took to the podium, with the team collecting a total of six trophies across an event that could easily have gone against it. The results mean Martin runs fourth in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship – just 18pts off the lead – with Cook right behind in fifth, 5.5pts further back. Barwell Motorsport also held second in the GT3 Teams’ standings and will continue its chase of rival 2 Seas Motorsport across the final two races of the season.
“That was a really strong weekend for us, especially after Qualifying when I wasn’t sure we had hope of one podium, let alone two. We were quite quick in practice, but didn’t put it together in Qualifying so we made it hard work, especially with the performance advantage cars like the McLaren have over us currently. But the driver standard, and the car setup standard at Barwell is incredibly high, and these results just show that.”
“It’s been a very solid weekend. Alex did a very good job, he may have wished he was a tenth quicker in Qualifying, but he certainly made up for it in the races, when it mattered most. The team did a superb job and pit stops were excellent all weekend. To be on the podium again in Race 2, even with the compensation time, is great and I was always confident that Alex would get the job done for second in that last stint.”
“I’m so glad to finish on a positive note as we felt a bit wounded all weekend. We lacked a bit of pace from the start on our side and then to have the ABS issue in Race 1 was pretty scary, in truth. But we recovered and Hugo did a great job to bring the car home in the points. I said if we could get within shouting distance after Hugo’s opening stint in Race 2 then we could have a go at the podium, pit times elsewhere helped us and then I just had to go for it in my stint. I saw a gap on the McLaren and just sent it. It was hard-earned and feels great to take another trophy home.”
“Brilliant end to the weekend. This has been a bit of a tricky weekend for me for various reasons, especially in Qualifying, but this result completely turns it around into a good weekend for us. I’m actually a bit relieved the pace in the races was stronger and we could get on the podium and score some extra points for the championship.”
“I’m super pleased with the results, and the entire team gave their all this weekend to make these results possible. It was clear from the start we would struggle to match the Mercedes-AMGs and McLarens for pure pace, so we simply had to maximise what we had and take every possible opportunity, and I think we did that on race day. Both Alex and Rob drove superbly, with zero errors and we executed two races without a single penalty, which will always keep you in the mix in a championship as tight as British GT. We’re now in a strong position in both the drivers’ and teams’ standings, and it’ll be all eyes forward across the final two races of the championship”
