Grasser Racing debut at Nürburgring
Lamborghini Factory Driver Sandy Mitchell impresses on Grasser Racing debut at Nürburgring despite caution interruptions.
Sandy Micthell delivered a strong performance on his debut for the Grasser Racing Team in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at the Nürburgring in Germany. The 26-year-old from Forfar, partnering fellow Lamborghini factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Franck Perera in the No63 Temerario GT3, was the fastest of all three in the combined qualifying session. And Mitchell delivered a series of personal fastest sectors and impressive overtakes during what was a Safety Car-punctuated 59-minute middle stint in the three-hour race.
“I’m delighted with my first outing with the Grasser team, and I have to thank them for the opportunity,” stated Mitchell, fresh from winning the last two US-based IMSA GTD Pro races at Road America and Virginia International Raceway. The car had terrific race pace and the team delivered two seamless pitstops. The Nürburgring is one of those tracks where it’s really difficult to overtake, and my stint was badly impacted by caution periods which bunched the field up and negated a lot of overtaking opportunities.”
Indeed, of the 59-minutes Mitchell was in the car, 35 were served during either a Full Course Yellow or behind a Safety Car. “It wasn’t ideal, but sometimes that’s just the roll of the dice you get in sportscar racing. But when I was actually racing, the car felt really good, I was able to punch in laps competitive with the race leaders and overtake a few cars.” Starting from 15th in the Pro Cup class and 35th overall in the 55-car field, Perera took the opening stint climbing to 13th in class and 27th overall before handing the #63 Temerario to Mitchell, personally backed by Tunnocks and Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila.
The Scot’s first 12 minutes were at a reduced speed under a FCY and behind the Safety Car, then having completed eight-minutes at race pace, a second SC was on-track while two cars were removed from the gravel. On the restart, Mitchell was again nose-to-tale in a long train of equally matched GT3 cars before, after just 10-minutes racing there was yet another FCY followed by a SC when the #5 McLaren was hit on-track. After 13mins under caution, on the restart Mitchell was one of the fastest cars on-track before pitting with 65mins remaining to hand the car to Bortolotti having climbed to 11th in class and 21st overall.
“We definitely had more pace in the race, which was really positive,” Mitchell continued. “We climbed to 12th in class and 18th overall at the chequered flag, which again highlights the improvements the team is making with the Temerario GT3, which of course is a new car for 2026. Overall I think we can be satisfied with the race weekend, but there’s no doubt the result would have been even better if we hadn’t had the caution periods. But that’s motorsport.”
Mitchell returns to action with Pfaff Motorports for the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 19/20.