Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe in Barcelona

Lamborghini factory driver, Sandy, ended his Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe in Barcelona with Lady Luck continuing to turn her back on the 23-year-old from Forfar. Partnering fellow Lamborghini factory drivers, Italian Marco Mapelli and Frenchman Franck Perera in the No 6 Huracan GT3 Evo2 prepared by the California-based K-PAX Racing, the Scot was sixth-fastest of the 54 cars during his qualifying session.

But starting from 15th on the grid for the three-hour race, it quickly became apparent with Perera, who took the opening stint, detecting a suspension issue with the car causing it to understeer. The problem continued throughout Mapelli’s stint, forcing the team to put the car into the garage for a few minutes at the final driver change to undertake repairs. The delay cost the team two laps, but the car was handling much better for Sandy’s closing stint and his pace matched that of the race leaders.

“It’s been a difficult last round,” Sandy, personally-backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky and Tunnocks, stated. “We did quite a good job in qualifying to put the car in P15 because there was a lot of traffic, and it was a tricky session with people going off. In the race we just didn’t quite have the pace and then in the end we had an issue with the front left. It was getting worse and worse, so we had to come in for a few minutes to fix the issue. After that the car seemed to go a little bit better, but the damage had been done by that point, so there was nothing we could do.”

“It’s been a season of what ifs. Again the bad luck which has plagued the team, and meant results have not reflected the pace or promise throughout the season, returned at the Circuit de Catalunya. We’ve shown strong pace to be fighting in the top five throughout the season, which in this championship is super hard to do, but we just seemed to have something not go our way at each round, and with only five races in the championship it’s never easy. I think we can be very proud of the effort the entire K-Pax Racing team has put in, coming over from the States with no testing and turning up at each race, as it is not easy to do with this car. To be as fast as we were says a lot about how good they are.”

Sandy returns to action on October 21/22 for the final round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Donington Park, bidding to finish in the top three in the title race.