Double podium in Euro GT3 Finale at Barcelona

Lamborghini Factory Driver Sandy, bags double podium in Euro GT3 finale at Barcelona with Collard and Barwell.

Sandy bagged two more podium finishes in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Bronze Cup finale at Barcelona to seal second place in the championship. The 24-year-old from Forfar, partnered by team-mate Rob Collard in their No78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2, prepared by Barwell Motorsport and backed by Dama Fortuna Tequila, finished third in the opening rain-drenched one-hour race, before taking second place in the sun in the final race.

“We came into the weekend with an outside chance of lifting the title,” Sandy, personally-backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky and Tunnocks, said, “and we threw everything at the challenge. Finishing with two more podiums is very positive for everyone in the team, and a solid way to finish the Sprint campaign.”

The opening race was dominated by a Safety Car period which lasted 52 minutes. In greasy conditions, the 32-car grid completed two laps behind the Safety Car to get heat into the tyres before the rolling start. But an incident at the opening corner immediately required the reappearance of the Safety Car. And while the drivers walked away uninjured, such was the damage to the race cars that a significant time was required to remove them to safety. In the interim, the Spanish skies opened with the torrent essentially flooding the track. Even behind the Safety Car at below 80km/h, cars aquaplaned off the track. It wasn’t until the 55th minute that the race director felt it safe enough to allow the race to go green again.

With Sandy having taken the first stint, it was Collard who closed the race and, after recovering from a spin following contact by the #97 Porsche, was the fastest Bronze Cup driver over the final two laps, eventually finishing third, just 0.157s off second. “Rob’s performance in the conditions at the end of the race was brilliant,” Sandy said. “He was more than three-seconds faster than all the other Bronze cars on the final lap and only just missed out on P2 with his dash to the line.”

Collard started the second 60-minute race from second in class, a position he held before handing the car to Sandy with 33-minutes remaining. A super-fast pitstop by the Barwell crew saw the Scot rejoin just ahead of the #97 Porsche, but in an action-packed outlap Sandy’s Lamborghini was eased wide at a tight left-hander and the Porsche muscled its way passed. “We had a bit of contact and I ended up with two wheels in the gravel, then I bounced back on to the track over a big kerb putting all four wheels in the air,” Sandy explained. “It was good hard racing.
“After that we had good pace and managed to hold on to our second place in both the race and the championship.”

Sandy and Collard, who won last time out at Magny-Cours, and scored two second places at Hockenheim, finished just 9.5-points behind the title winners. “We’ve been consistently quick throughout the season, and the team has been brilliant in preparing the car, plus the pitstops and strategy,” Sandy continued’ “It’s been great to race with Rob again. Of course it would have been fantastic to add a European title to the British GT Championship we won together in 2020, but it wasn’t to be.”

Sandy will complete his race season when he lines up for the final race in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Jeddah in November.