WITH COLLARD AND BARWELL
Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell, partnered by team-mate Rob Collard, took his first win in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Bronze Cup when the duo took the chequered flag at Magny-Cours in Central France. And the weekend’s results saw the pairing move into second place in the title race.
Tackling the first of the two 60-minute races in their No78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2 prepared by Barwell Motorsport and backed by Dama Fortuna Tequila, Mitchell, the 24-year-old from Forfar, qualified the car third in class.
Taking the opening stint, the Scot battled through the first 36 minutes before handing the car to Collard. Rejoining fourth in the Bronze Cup, Collard, who partnered Mitchell to the 2020 British GT Championship, eased himself into third before stewards first handed a 10-second penalty to the race-leading #991 BMW, and then a five-second penalty to the second-placed #97 Porsche promoting Mitchell and Collard to the race win.
“Rob drove a tremendous stint,” Mitchell, personally-backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky and Tunnocks, stated. “Towards the end of his stint we knew the cars ahead were going to get time penalties so Rob had to keep himself within the relative time windows.
“With eight minutes of the race remains Rob did his own personal best lap and closed the gap to the second-placed #97 down to 2.6secs. When he crossed the line he was right on the rear bumper of the Porsche.
“It was great for everyone in the team to finally score our first race win in the Sprint Bronze Cup. We came close last time out at Hockenheim finishing second in both races, so this win was special.”
Race two though proved frustrating, with the same stewards who had played a significant role in the #78’s opening win ultimately denying Mitchell and Collard another podium.
Collard took the first stint in the second one-hour race and did well to avoid the opening lap melee in which a number of cars went off-track, resulting in a lengthy Safety Car period.
When the race went live after 14 minutes behind the Safety Car, Collard was second in class, a position he held unto pitting to hand the car over to Mitchell with 34 minutes remaining.
Following great work by the Barwell team in the pitstop, the Scot rejoined leading the Bronze Cup, a position he held until 12 minutes from the end when he was caught by another car.
“The #97 Porsche had some serious pace and when it caught and passed me I was forced to run on the dirty section of the track,” Mitchell explained, “and as a result it made it difficult to push hard for the next lap or so with the pick-up on the tyres.”
The closing minutes saw a nose-to-tail, mirror-to-mirror battle with five ultra-competitive cars covered by a space that appeared to be no bigger than a handkerchief. The action was frenetic.
“There was some really tough, close racing in the final few laps of the race between all the bunched-up GT3 cars and on this occasion we didn’t quite come out on top,” Mitchell continued. “But under the circumstances, to cross the finish line P3 on-track was a really positive outcome.”
Mitchell eventually took the chequered flag in third position, but in a fractional call amid what had been a chaotic first lap, the stewards decided Collard had made up some places right as the Safety Car was called and handed the #78 Lamborghini a 10-second penalty.
“That was frustrating and disappointing,” Mitchell said. “The team appealed the decision but the stewards’ decision remained, dropping us to seventh in the race.
“But we’ve move up to second place in the championship, just 9.5-points behind the leaders with two 60-minute races left in the final round next month in Barcelona. We’ve been on the top step of the podium once, and now we head to Spain knowing exactly what we need to do. We’re up for the fight.”
