All three of the Barwell GT3 Heritage entries took a turn in the spotlight across the twin GT3 Revival Series races that proved a highlight of the Le Mans Classic Legend last weekend, with the team celebrating twin podiums and a haul of top 10 finishes.
Peter Moulsdale twice thrust the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3 Evo into the fight for an overall podium, securing two highly impressive fourth-place finishes, while Adam Balon celebrated a fine drive to eighth overall in the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 FL2 GT3 in the opener before a technical gremlin denied him in the second.
The new entry of Stéphane Ratel and Robert Hissom capped an already impressive weekend for the team by scoring two podium finishes in the AM Gen 1 category, with the pair bringing the Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3 home second in both contests.
The results also came at the GT3 Heritage team’s biggest event of the season, with the first-ever edition of the Le Mans Classic Legend drawing huge crowds to the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, with both races taking place on the full 13.6km 24 Hours track.
That made every session a real challenge as the huge field of 41 cars rolled out for the twin Qualifying sessions on Friday. Although Moulsdale lost time in the opening session due to an electrical glitch, he did enough to secure 12th on the grid for the opening race on Saturday morning, with Balon 19th and Ratel/Hissom’s Aston going from fourth in the Gen 1 class and 36th overall.
The tight Qualifying only set up a dramatic opening race, in which all three Barwell cars made superb progress up the order across the 50 minutes.
Moulsdale’s hopes of making a lightning start were hindered by a spinning Audi in front delaying him through the Dunlop chicane. While he recovered in 17th overall, it would mean progress had to be earned the hard way, which he did thanks to sheer pace and determination. By the time the pit window opened, Moulsdale had battled to 11th, with Balon following him through to make his mandatory stop from 15th and Hissom from 24th overall, having brought the Aston up into second in class before handing to Ratel.
Three perfectly timed stops from the Barwell technical crew got the cars serviced, drivers changed and back out exactly on their time marks, meaning when the order filtered through after the pit cycle, Moulsdale emerged in fifth, with Balon 10th and Ratel 22nd and still in a provisional Am Gen 1 podium place.
There was further progress to come though, when Moulsdale was elevated a further place after a bizarre collision between Alvaro Parente’s ex-Team WRT Audi and the former Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG of Heiko Neumann as the pair entered the pits together. The resulting damage did for the Audi, allowing Moulsdale to run home fourth after a tight battle with the Akkodis ASP Ferrari shared by Pro-Am pairing Jerome Policand and Jean-Luc Beaubelique. Balon chased Lee Maxted-Page’s Porsche 997 GT3R hard to the line, eventually settling for a superb eighth overall after what was a hard-fought solo performance.
Ratel and Hissom bagged their first piece of silverware with Ratel – the inventor of the GT3 category – bringing the Lukoil-liveried DBRS9 home 18th overall, snatching second in class from Danny Henrey’s Callaway Corvette after the car gained an impressive 18 places from its original grid slot.
Hopes were high for Sunday afternoon’s finale, as were the temperatures as the French sun blazed causing track temperatures to peak at 52 degrees, making for physical work for the drivers in the sweltering heat.
Moulsdale took the start from fourth with Balon eighth and Ratel 18th after their Saturday finishing positions. With several Pro-Am runners around him Moulsdale played it safe at the start and settled into sixth, with Balon getting a great launch behind to move up to seventh and Ratel getting away solidly to run third in Gen 1. Moulsdale soon found himself once again in a tight fight with the Policand Ferrari and Eric Debard’s Matech Ford GT.
Moulsdale held sixth before diving into the pits once the window opened, with a second perfectly timed service getting him back out into the fight in fifth, before he leapfrogged past the Akkodis Ferrari now in the hands of Beaubelique for a second finish just shy of the overall podium. It completed a superb weekend from Moulsdale, who repeatedly set lap times comparable to the race winners while showing great consistency driving solo aboard the Z4.
Balon shadowed Moulsdale as best he could through the opening stint but was forced to drop back when the Gallardo lost fifth gear. His shot at a second top 10 result was wrecked when he was forced to pull over at the end of his fifth lap with the issue worsening.
That left Ratel and Hissom to impress further, with Ratel handing the Aston across from second in class, having gained a spot when Henrey’s Corvette developed a problem. Hissom made no mistakes, running to the flag in 19th overall and sealing a second podium for the Gen 1 crew.
“A fantastic weekend. Just fabulous. I have only raced the full Le Mans track twice before, once in the first-ever Venturi Trophy round we organised back in 1992 and again at the first edition of the Le Mans Classic [in 2002]. To be back here racing on the full circuit is just pure addiction. It’s been fantastic and thank you to the whole Barwell team for their great work.”
“What an incredible weekend, and a superb event to be a part of. The scale of the Le Mans Classic Legend was just huge, and it proved the perfect place to showcase these amazing GT3 cars. Race 1 was a dream, with Peter being an absolute star with a superb drive up the order to fourth, Adam putting in a seriously impressive performance for eighth and Stéphane and Robert picking up a well-earned second in class. Then for Peter, Stéphane and Robert to double up in the finale was just fantastic to watch, even if it was a huge shame for Adam to lose the second half of the race after driving so well. This is a seriously competitive grid, so results such as these cannot be taken for granted and are the result of a huge amount of hard work across the entire team. We’re already fired up and ready for our next GT3 Heritage outing at Silverstone.”
