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22 May 2023 Barwell completes Spa 24 Hour line-up with Mardini and Kujala

Barwell Motorsport is delighted to announce that it has now finalised its driver line-up for this year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. Joining full-season drivers Rob Collard and Dennis Lind in our Pro-Am class Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 will be Bashar Mardini (Canada) and Patrick Kujala (Finland). After winning the first round at Monza in April, the Black Bull Scotch Whisky-backed team are currently the Pro-Am Cup championship leaders and will be looking to consolidate that position in the next event at Paul Ricard before heading to Spa for the double-points 24 Hour race.

 

Mardini will replace Adam Balon – who is unavailable for Spa – as the second Bronze-graded driver in the car whilst Kujala will be the extra Pro driver allowed in the line-up for the 24 Hours only. Bashar is new to Barwell but has extensive international sportscar racing experience, having been a Pro-Am winner in multiple European Porsche Carrera Cup series over the past five seasons as well as sampling GT3 and LMP3 machinery in the Asian Le Mans Series. Patrick however has been a huge part of Barwell’s success stories in the GT World Challenge/Blancpain Endurance series, having claimed an Am class win with us at the Spa 24 Hours before as well as the 2020 Silver Cup Endurance Championship title.

 

Rob also has a winning pedigree at the 24 Hours as he was part of the victorious Pro-Am crew in 2020 alongside his son Ricky, Leo Machitski and Sandy Mitchell. Dennis meanwhile has previously been a winner at the Spa circuit in a Barwell Lamborghini, but it was in the ’21 British GT Championship two-hour race there! However he has won a 24-Hour race with us before, as both him and Patrick were in our 2019 Barcelona 24 Hours winning car – the first outright 24 Hour-race victory for the Huracan GT3.

 

Mark Lemmer, Barwell Motorsport Team Principal: “We are delighted to welcome Bashar to the Barwell/Lambo family along with Patrick. Kujala is a magician at Spa in a Barwell Lamborghini GT3, and with Bashar’s speed and experience we now have four drivers that will almost certainly be the crew to beat in the Pro-Am class at the 24 Hours of Spa.”

 

Euan Shand, Chairman of the Team’s title sponsors, Black Bull Scotch Whisky, highlighted his favourite race of the year: “This is the pinnacle of endurance at Spa and the race that we really look forward to watching every year.  With the opportunity for double points there is a steely determination in the team, especially after some great racing and victory at Monza last month, coupled with the successes in previous years at Spa.  Great to see Bashar Mardini added to the experienced team and we wish them all the success for a great 24 hours of racing.”

 

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