Barwell Motorsport endured a mixed start to its British GT Championship season at Silverstone last weekend. While Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski scored a superb Silver-Am podium finish, the team overall was denied by a mixture of misfortune and a strategic lottery that held its trio of Lamborghinis back from their true potential.
Waberski enjoyed a stellar British GT debut alongside Martin in the #78 Huracan – backed by Dextra Group – DexNET Lighting Controls, D.A.W, T4 Intelligent Infrastructure and Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila – managing a technical issue across the three hours to secure third in class. Had it not been for a late safety car benefitting their rivals, an overall podium would have been on.
For much of the event, it looked like Rob Collard and Hugo Cook’s Dama Fortuna/Collard Group/J&S Accessories-backed #63 car was a contender for the overall win, until the pair were denied by a freak technical issue deep into the second hour.
Despite being brand new to the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin acquitted themselves well aboard the #55 Hensmill/Lady Luck Irish Whiskey entry, making great progress through the field to run as high as third overall before an unlucky spin set them back.
Barwell’s Huracans looked odds-on for a strong weekend from the very start of running at Silverstone, with the cars locking out the top three spots in the opening test and Waberski setting the fastest outright time across Friday.
That theme continued through Saturday with Cook and Collard leading Free Practice before then being second in Pre-Qualifying. Qualifying would be more of a challenge, when others showed their true pace. The Barwell technical team identified a gearbox glitch on the #63 and changed the unit ahead of the session, with Collard and Cook secured third on combined times. Martin and Waberski were sixth and claimed pole in the Silver-Am category, while Cameron and Griffin were 13th after having a lap time deleted.
Regardless, the Barwell cars were prepared with the longer race in mind, with all three crews looking to push forward on race day.
When the lights went out, Collard got a clean getaway to slot into third as Martin endured a dose of early drama, having to take to the Copse run-off to avoid a spinning Mercedes-AMG ahead. He may have lost a few places in doing so but skilfully avoided what could have been a race-ending clash.
Up front, Collard deposed Morgan Tillbrook’s McLaren of second and began to pile the pressure on race leader Darren Leung in the Paradine Competition BMW. Saving his tyres across an early caution period, Collard attacked hard before handing to Cook for the second stint, who likewise kept the car firmly in the fight for the overall win with impressive consistency. Sadly, their challenge would end in heartbreaking fashion when Collard was forced to park the #63 after a freak failure caused smoke to billow from the engine bay with 70 minutes remaining.
After the early delay for the #78, Martin did well to hold a spot inside the top 10, battling hard before handing across to Waberski with a well-timed stop under a full course yellow period. While a suspected sensor issue meant both drivers had to keep some pace in reserve, Waberski brought the car into the top six before pitting at the ideal opportunity around the third of the race’s five caution periods.
Martin rejoined fourth before being promoted into the podium places after the issue for the #63. Martin then pulled a great pass on Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston Martin to snatch second out of Woodcote, putting the #78 comfortably inside the podium places and on course for an excellent result that would also have brought the crew maximum championship points with the race leader being a one-off guest entry. With a podium seemingly assured, Martin made his final stop to hand to Waberski for the run to the flag. While the team again executed a perfect service, one final caution period minutes later undid their efforts as both the rival #3 McLaren and #44 BMW benefitted massively from taking their final stops with the race at reduced speed, leapfrogging them up the order.
The resulting safety car also eroded Waberski's gap over the chasing #67 McLaren, leaving him powerless to defend whilst managing the sensor problem when racing resumed. Martin and Waberski eventually secured fifth overall, and third in class. However, with some cars ahead being guest entries, it meant third of the full-season crews and points for second in the Silver-Am category.
Cameron and Griffin may have had a tricky Qualifying but excelled in the race. Cameron opted for a long opening stint, surviving a squeeze from the #90 Optimum McLaren to bring the car up the order before handing to Griffin. The drivers’ big opportunity arrived in the second hour, when the team timed their second stop perfectly around a safety car, elevating Cameron into the top six. From there he pressed on, climbing as high as third overall as the final pit stops cycled through, before an unlucky slip into the gravel cost time. Cameron freed himself and got back to the pits so Griffin could nurse the car home in 12th, picking up some valuable championship points on debut.
The results mean Martin and Waberski run third in the overall GT3 Drivers’ Championship, with Barwell also P3 in the GT3 Teams’ standings after the opening round.
“I’m really happy with the result considering the challenges we faced. We were managing an issue pretty much from the start so to be in the fight for the overall podium was great and we just got unlucky with the final safety car. I firmly believe we could have won the race outright without the problems and having to hold a few tenths back each lap. Alex drove brilliantly and did really well at the start, and we come away with some strong points and less success penalty for Oulton Park. I feel sorry for the other cars as we looked set for strong results across the board at one point, but I’m sure we’ll all come back stronger.”
“It’s a gutting way to end the weekend, especially considering the pace Hugo and I had across the early part of the weekend and across the opening half of the race. At the start I was just looking after my tyres and letting the BMW do its thing before pushing on later, then Hugo did a great job of keeping us in the fight. In my second stint I was doing the same thing, biding my time and then suddenly the car filled with smoke and I had to park it and get out of there. It’s such a shame, especially after all the hard work the team had put in already, changing the gearbox before Qualifying. We’ll regroup and come out fighting at Oulton Park.”
“It was a tough race for us overall, but I was very pleased we got ourselves in contention across the second half. The speed was good in the car and the balance felt good. Personally, I struggled a bit in traffic with front-end grip, which could be setup or me just getting used to the Lambo in that situation. Duncan just got very unlucky near the end and that set us back. But we learned a huge amount and made great progress in the race. We always knew we’d race better than we qualified, we just have to get our heads around the Huracan a little bit more to get where we want to be.”
“Silverstone was a frustrating one, for a multitude of reasons, but I’m delighted we came away with something for Alex and Jarrod, who was properly impressive on his British GT debut. This race can be an absolute lottery with how the safety cars fall, and this time things didn’t go our way. We’ll get back to base and analyse the failure on the #63 and I really feel for Rob and Hugo, who were on for a top result. It’s incredibly rare that we have any form of failure like that, so we will get to the bottom of it. Duncan and Matt adapted to the Lamborghini really well across the weekend and were a joy to work with. Had it not been for some bad luck late on they’d have gone home with a brilliant result. We’ve got a lot to work to do before Oulton Park, but it’s a circuit we like and have had a lot of success at in the past, so we’ll be aiming high.”
