Barwell Motorsport celebrated its 30th British GT Championship victory with the Lamborghini brand as Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski came out on top of a chaotic fourth race of the season at Spa-Francorchamps, a result that also elevates them into the championship lead.
Martin and Waberski had qualified third in the #78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 – backed by Dextra Group – DexNET Lighting Controls, D.A.W, T4 Intelligent Infrastructure and Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila – but worked their way into the lead thanks to a lightning start from Martin. A string of safety car periods neutralised large portions of the race, making both race management and track position vital. Martin held the lead throughout the first half, before Waberski was forced to manage two safety car restarts of his own before once again pulling clear of his rivals to secure a dream result.
The win marked Barwell Motorsport’s 30th British GT triumph with the Lamborghini Huracan since it first partnered with Lamborghini Squadra Corse back in 2016, adding to its previous successes with Aston Martin, BMW and Ginetta.
The joy was almost doubled too, with Rob Collard and Hugo Cook coming agonisingly close to scoring a sensational podium having started at the back of the grid following qualifying dramas. The Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila/Collard Group/J&S Accessories-backed #63 ended up fourth after a late scramble for places, but that still represented a stunning recovery in some of the most difficult circumstances the team has faced in a British GT event.
The results mean Martin and Waberski now lead both the overall and Silver-Am championship points, with Collard and Cook fifth. It has also extended Barwell’s lead in the GT3 Teams’ standings.
With the British GT field combined with entries from both the French GT Championship and single-make Alpine Cup, the total 55-car field offered plenty of challenges to navigate across the two hours in the Ardennes.
Traffic management, fast reflexes and the odd bit of luck would be the keys to success and Martin and Waberski displayed all three. Starting third after a solid qualifying, Martin was determined to push on early and his cause was aided when the Optimum Motorsport McLaren that had been due to start from the front row pitted with a suspected tyre problem, leaving a space for Martin to dive into when the lights went out. He made no mistake, timing his getaway perfectly to get the jump on pole-sitter Simon Orange’s McLaren to lead the way into Eau Rouge.
Luck deserted the #63 in qualifying, with Collard having his best two laps scrubbed for track limits and then a red flag prevented him from setting a time, meaning the #63 would start at the back of the GT3 order. However, Collard was on a mission and produced a stellar opening lap, passing seven cars to rise to fifth – including a stunning move on the brakes into Les Combes that elevated him past both the #44 BMW and #13 Ferrari in a single masterstroke. Fifth then became fourth with a neat move on the championship-leading Beechdean Aston Martin soon after.
Up front Martin had bolted, picking his way through the first dose of GT4 and Alpine traffic to pull a near six-second gap before being pegged back by a safety car needed to clear an Alpine from the gravel.
This would be a recurring theme of the race, with a second caution period to retrieve stranded cars covering the pit window. Both Barwell Huracans took the chance to pit in formation for service and driver swaps. Martin relayed Waberski while a perfectly timed change from Collard to Cook got the #63 out ahead of the rival #90 Optimum McLaren and into third.
Waberski judged the restart to action perfectly, immediately restoring some of the #78’s lead as Cook soaked up pressure from Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn, now in the chasing Beechdean Vantage. Racing was soon neutralised again, however, effectively reducing the race to a 25-minute sprint to the flag.
Waberski again made no mistake, flooring the throttle out of the chicane to again forge a gap. The South African crafted a lead of a few seconds before navigating one final frantic stream of traffic flawlessly to cement a historic result for the team, and his and Martin’s first victory as a pairing.
Cook looked set to follow home in third, but a slight delay in traffic into the final moments allowed the #77 Optimum McLaren to pounce on the Kemmel Straight, even if it made the move with two wheels off the track. Regardless, fourth from the back of the grid and a spot on the GT3 Pro-Am podium was a superb result for Collard and Cook after the disappointment of Saturday and keeps them well in the GT3 title hunt.
“What an amazing result. The Lamborghini tends to be really strong in lower-grip situations, and I think with the heat today it actually helped us in that respect. I don’t know if my start was lightning or if everybody else was asleep, but I saw my gap and went for it. I was building a great gap but we knew that safety cars would be a theme of this race, and we worked really hard on traffic management before the race, so it certainly paid off!”
“It was really tough out there, but the car was absolutely mega today. Alex did an incredible job at the start and then it was down to me to manage things with the two safety car restarts and the crazy final few laps. I was making sure I saved the tyre life for when I needed it and that certainly helped when I needed to make moves in traffic. Overall, it was a brilliant race for us and I’m super thankful to the entire team.”
“I was on a mission at the start because I had to dig myself out of a situation we shouldn’t have been in. Thankfully we had a great car to fight with and I drove hard. The format of the race today was really difficult with so many cars and so many interruptions to the racing. The results were dictated by the safety cars in many ways because we weren’t allowed to fight for long periods of time, and then we just got unfortunate late on to lose third. But we came here for points first and foremost and the team did a great job overall.”
“I felt like I had decent pace, but the McLaren just has that extra punch out of the corner compared to us, so when I tried to play it safe with track limits through Eau Rouge I got delayed and there wasn’t much I could do as getting through the traffic felt more like survival at times. It’s disappointing to not be on the podium, but we’ll 100% take the points and the positives from the recovery drive and move on to the next one.”
“I’m incredibly proud of the job the team did today in exceptionally challenging circumstances. The combined grid added a huge amount of variables and uncertainty but both crews came through it exceptionally, and that’s even before the sheer heat is taken into account. Alex and Jarrod produced a textbook race and fully deserved the win, which puts them in a great position not just for the Silver-Am title chase, but the overall GT3 one too. Rob and Hugo got hugely unlucky in qualifying but instead of letting their heads drop they turned things around and were so unlucky not to come away with a trophy. That’s the mark of a truly top driver pairing. Overall, the team was exceptional, and to secure our 30th British GT victory with Lamborghini is a real badge of honour for all of us.”
