The Barwell Motorsport team faced up to a host of challenges in the latest round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup at Misano. Despite its twin Lamborghinis showing flashes of potential, neither car was properly rewarded for its efforts across what became a largely frustrating weekend.
Lamborghini’s Huracan GT3 EVO2 simply didn’t have the pace to compete for the big scores at Misano and, with temperatures on the Italian coast hitting above 30 degrees, it made for a draining weekend.
However, there were more than few green shoots; such as an impressive rate of progress made across the two races, Sandy Mitchell again showing his star quality with a rapid Qualifying run on Sunday, and a return to the hot seat for reigning British GT champion Ricky Collard.
Hugo Cook and Mitchell twice finished agonisingly shy of the top 10 in the Pro class aboard the #78 Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila/J&S Accessories-backed car, while Bijoy Garg and Collard looked odds-on for a breakthrough podium before a gearbox glitch sidelined the #76 BAM Motorsport Management/Wing Venture Capital/Collard Group/Lady Luck Irish Whiskey machine.
The challenge that lay ahead of the team was highlighted on Saturday, with the Lamborghinis beginning the opening Qualifying session of the weekend as the heaviest of all the nine brands entered.
Giving away almost 60kg to the Aston Martins and Ferraris, the twin Huracan GT3 EVO2s had a mountain to climb during the hottest part of the day, with the rising track temperatures also not helping the mid-engined machines.
Cook fared best overall, placing the #78 13th on the grid among the Pro cars, while Collard would start just a few places behind overall, sixth in the Gold order.
Despite the deficit in single-lap pace, the team remained confident of having a strong race car for the opening hour-long sprint into the night, when cooler temperatures would help matters. And so it proved, with both cars coming through a turbulent opening lap to make up a heap of places.
Multiple pinch-points around the Misano lap took their toll as the 43-car field roared away, with both Cook and Collard immediately on the front foot. Cook improved seven places overall on the first lap, rising to 12th in class, but Collard picked his way through even better, rising to second in class and igniting hopes of a first podium of the year for the #76. However, those were soon extinguished when a freak failure of the gear selector system struck, jamming the car into second gear and forcing Collard to limp home to retire with a fault rarely ever seen on a Lamborghini GT3, let alone a Barwell-prepared car.
That left Cook and Mitchell carrying team hopes, and they too continued to make progress. Cook held station just outside the top 10 before pitting for Mitchell at the first opportunity. A clean swap got Mitchell back on track and ready to hunt down those ahead. The Scot passed both the #97 Rutronik and #80 Lionspeed Porsches before homing in and dispatching the Paradine Competition BMW to secure 17th overall and 11th in Pro. It may not have been a points-paying finish, but it was still 12 places gained. The car also lapped just a tenth of a second away from the quickest Lamborghini, showing the rate of progress across the day from the team to close the gap.
That trend continued on Sunday. After some sweeping changes to the cars, Mitchell repaid the team’s hard work by making the #78 the fastest Lamborghini of all in Qualifying. The fact the car lined up 14th again showing the scale of the challenge the Bolognese brand was up against.
A heavily disrupted second race also made forward progress difficult. Mitchell managed to work his way inside the Pro class top 10 before the race was halted following a big accident involving the #1 Grasser Racing Huracan, which heavily damaged the barriers and led to a two-hour delay before running resumed.
Upon the restart, Mitchell enjoyed a brief spell in the race lead as the team opted to run long and try to take advantage of clean air before Mitchell pitted for Cook. Rejoining in sight of the top 10, Cook fought hard with Ben Green’s Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, eventually finishing 11th in the Pro order – a performance made even more respectable by the fact the driver cooling fan failed, leaving Cook piloting a mobile oven over the closing laps.
It was a similar story of frustration for the #76 crew. Garg qualified fifth in class and also pressed forward, making up a host of places overall across the disrupted opening half, and then showing consistent pace after the restart before handing to Collard. Ricky attacked as best he could and eroded the gap to the class runners ahead, but sixth was the limit on this occasion. They at least banked some points on their first outing in the Gold category.
“It’s been a very hot, very challenging weekend. We never seemed to have the raw speed here, and it’s been a common theme for the Lamborghinis in general this weekend. We improved the car a lot from where we began the event, so that’s a big positive. Race 2 was just so tough as my cooling fan stopped working and I was melting in the car over the last few laps.”
“This one was tricky. We just didn’t have the pace to match those at the front, especially in the hot conditions, so it made for two really tough races for us. We made a lot of changes overnight from Saturday and the car was much improved on Sunday. I was happy to qualify as the top Lamborghini, and that’s something the whole team can be proud of. It’s one of those weekends when we have to take the smaller wins and move on.”
“Overall it’s been a disappointing weekend for the Lamborghinis in general, across a lot more people that just us. Race 1 was actually going really well before we lost gears. But the team did a great job to turn the car around for Race 2. We needed some luck on Sunday and didn’t really get it. It was also difficult with the long red flag, but we got to the finish eventually with no damage, so on to the next.”
“It’s been a tough weekend but I’ve still loved it – being back with the Barwell team and back in the car… it’s been great. Our race pace was actually pretty good and I think we were definitely on for a podium in Race 1 before the failure, which was something nobody could have foreseen. We improved the car as the weekend went on and hopefully we can make more progress during the next round in Magny-Cours.”
“It was a disappointing weekend all-round for us. Sometimes with balance of performance it can feel like you’re fighting with one hand tied behind your back, and that was the case for us this time. However the team stayed highly motivated throughout, nobody let their head drop and we ground out some respectable results. The fact we qualified as the fastest Lamborghini – ahead of the Grasser car that had just won the 24 Hours of Spa – goes to show the improvements the team made across the weekend, and we can be rightly proud of that. Conditions were tough for the drivers and the cars, but we came through it. We’re already focusing on the next round at Magny-Cours next month.”
