Snetterton
Lamborghini Factory driver Sandy, fastest at Snetterton but denied dominant British GT double win with Black Bull and Barwell.
Sandy delivered another dominant performance in the latest British GT Championship double-header at Snetterton. But having bagged pole position and appearing to have clinched back-to-back wins in the two 60-minute races, a post-race penalty to his No78 Lamborghini after Race 2 relegated the car to 10th.
Sandy, the 24-year-old from Forfar and 2020 British GT champion, sharing his Dextra-backed #78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 prepared by Barwell Motorsport with team-mate Alex Martin, again delivered a masterful display of smooth, fast, error-free driving all weekend.
Starting from second on the grid for the opening race behind the sister Barwell #63 Lamborghini of Rob and Ricky Collard, team-mate Martin shadowed Rob through the opening stint of the first 60-minute race, pitting just 3.5secs behind the lead car. With the #63 Lambo serving an extra five-second success penalty having finished third last time out at Spa, Mitchell emerged after the compulsory pitstop narrowly in the lead.
“I had Ricky right on my tail for our first couple of competitive laps trying to put some pressure on me,” Sandy, personally-backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky and Tunnocks, explained, “but I remained consistent with my pace and managed to establish an advantage towards the end of the race.”
Not only did the Scot remain consistent, but at the crucial phase he rattled off a series of personal fastest laps, including what was the quickest of the race, a 1min 47.452secs round the 2.96-mile Norfolk circuit, to ease to a 6.387sec win, the pair’s third in the season’s six race. The victory — he also won the corresponding race last season — maintained his record of having finished on the podium every year at the circuit since 2020, the year he lifted the British GT title.
Sandy also praised the performance of Martin, not only during his qualifying session but also the opening stint in Race 1. “Alex continues to improve at every race meeting we go to,” Sandy explained. “Remember this is his first season in both the Lamborghini and British GT, so to qualify second in his Am session was brilliant. To then back that up by keeping Rob within a three-and-a-half second window in Race 1 certainly laid the platform for our win.”
The duo’s performance in the second 60-minute race was even more dominant. Faced with a 10-second success penalty at their compulsory pitstop having won Race 1, Mitchell set himself the mission of establishing a 10s advantage before handing the #78 Lambo to Martin. After a perfect start from pole position, Sandy had opened a 5.1sec gap to the #6 Mercedes of Phil Keen after 21 minutes. As the GT3 cars weaved their way through the slower GT4 cars, the Scot emerged with a 10.6s advantage. By the time he pitted to hand the car to Martin, the lead was a shade over 11secs.
But there was controversy when Martin tried to leave the pitlane. The #6 Mercedes was pushed out from its garage blocking the path of the #78 and rejoined in the lead ahead of the Lamborghini. But within minutes the stewards had handed the Mercedes a drive-through penalty and the #78 was back in the lead. And while he then brought the car home to take the chequered flag to claim what appeared to be their second win of the day, an hour after the race finished those same stewards denied the #78 the victory, adjudging Martin had overtaken a GT4 car under yellow flags. The 30-second time penalty relegated the #78 car from first to 10th, and saw a points differential of 25 down to one point.
“It was an extremely tight call,” Sandy said afterwards, “but in motorsport we have to accept the stewards’ decision. Ultimately though it was a disappointing outcome and not the result our dominant performance merited. “The car was just on fire this weekend. It was flying with both the Am driver and the Pro, which is testament to the way the guys at Barwell set the car up for us both. It’s a pleasure to drive it when the car’s feeling that good.”
Such was Sandy’s dominance that not only did he post fastest laps in both races, but his qualifying time of 1.45.373s was the quickest of the weekend.
Now the fired-up duo head to Donington in September for the first of the final two 120-minute races having seen their 12-point lead in the championship evaporate. They are now five points behind the sister car of the Collards, who were promoted to second in Race 2 after the penalty imposed on the #78.
“We’ve two two-hour races left this year and Alex and I head to the next race at Donington determined to get back on the top step of the podium and re-establish ourselves at the top of the championship,” Sandy stated.
