It was widely recognised across the British GT paddock that Sandy Mitchell and his Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan was the fastest entry throughout the 2024 season. But, ultimately, it did not win the title after a year-long battle with team-mates Rob and Ricky Collard, where the margins were incredibly fine.
“We threw it away earlier in the season,” Mitchell’s dejected co-driver Alex Martin said at the Brands Hatch finale. He is referring to Snetterton, the campaign’s fifth event and a defining moment in the fight between the two Barwell Lamborghinis.
Mitchell drove a mega final stint to win the weekend’s opening race by 6.4 seconds in a Barwell 1-2. Another victory in the second affair appeared unlikely, though, as the #78 car had to pit for an extra 10s having won earlier that afternoon. But 2020 champion Mitchell – a title he won with Rob Collard, father of Ricky – continued his dominance and built a gap of over 10s from pole come the driver change, in which Martin jumped aboard and sealed the double.
Or that’s how it initially appeared. Approximately 90 minutes later, the pair received a 30s penalty because Martin lapped two GT4s under safety car conditions, a sanction that demoted the duo to 10th.
That, and the disqualification of the RAM Racing BMW of John Ferguson and Max Hesse, pushed the Collards up to second behind Maximilian Gotz and Kevin Tse (2 Seas Mercedes) meaning, suddenly, the championship picture was completely different.
“I was being a bit too clever,” reveals Martin. “I hadn’t seen the yellow flag, but we did get the warning inside the car. So, I was pushing too hard and rolled the dice when I didn’t need to, because we had an easy win and just threw it away.”
Had it not happened, Mitchell/Martin would have left Snetterton 22 points ahead of their team-mates with 75 available, so quite the overhaul. But, just like that, the Collards inherited top spot by five points – a position they kept for the remaining two rounds.
“A double win there would have pretty much put us out of reach,” says Mitchell. “So that was really frustrating, but it’s how it goes sometimes – everyone has one or two bad races.”
The season unravelled for the #78 car from that moment, having previously been the class of the field. Mitchell was delivering on the fast reputation the Lamborghini factory driver had deservedly earned, while rookie Martin was one of the grid’s strongest amateurs.
But the squad was near-faultless across the board, as Barwell clinched the teams’ crown at the Donington Park penultimate round having dominated 2024 from start to finish. It arrived at Snetterton with three victories from the opening five races, during which Silverstone and Spa were Barwell’s only blemishes.
“When Sandy [Mitchell] and Alex [Martin] look back over the year, I think their mistakes have cost them the championship" Rob Collard
At a wet Silverstone round three, the Collards finished fifth having been relatively off the pace, while bad luck hit their team-mates, as Optimum McLaren’s Mark Radcliffe spun into Martin, who was running 10th with 55 of 180 minutes remaining. Barwell also lacked pace at Spa, as Gotz/Tse dominated from pole, but the Lamborghinis still finished a respectable third (#63) and fourth (#78), showing competitiveness even on its weaker days.
And that was the difference between Barwell and its rivals, who were too inconsistent to maintain a title challenge. Two of Barwell’s early victories were claimed by Mitchell/Martin, so they led the points heading to Snetterton but, even after that unfortunate weekend, the pair still had cause for optimism. That’s because it meant the #78 Huracan had no compensation time for Donington, while the Collards were set to serve an extra 15s in the pits.
It should have made a huge difference, as Collard Sr led a Barwell 1-2 by no more than 8s in the early stages, meaning the cars were set to swap during the driver change. But, 45 minutes into the two-hour race, Martin clipped the Fogarty Esses tyre stack causing a front-left puncture and an unscheduled pitstop. This dropped the #78 car to sixth before Mitchell ultimately recovered to fourth – but it was not enough. The incident gave the Collards a comfortable second victory of 2024, meaning they extended their advantage to a significant 24.5 points with 37.5 available. “That’s a points-scoring round and two wins that we lost,” Martin bluntly puts it. But there was little sympathy from the other side of the garage.
“It’s just about not making any mistakes,” says Collard Sr, who finished every race inside the top five alongside Ricky. “When Sandy and Alex look back over the year, I think their mistakes have cost them the championship. They have been the faster car and won more races, but they’ve also made more mistakes. Ricky and myself have just kept it simple.”
But Martin knew that, as team boss Mark Lemmer reveals: “Alex put his hands up before Brands and said, ‘If we don’t win the championship, I know that Snetterton was the defining moment’.”
There was still hope the finale would offer a surprise, but three safety car periods caused an anti-climactic decider as the Collards consistently ran inside the positions they needed for the title. They eventually finished sixth on track but scored points for fourth due to RJN’s non-scoring entry of Joshua Caygill and Alex Buncombe claiming victory, while Tom Gamble/Radcliffe received a penalty. The Collards therefore became only the second father-son pairing to win the British GT3 title after Jim and Glynn Geddie in 2011, despite Mitchell/Martin taking maximum points at Brands Hatch.
“We’ve just been solid,” says Collard Jr, who clinched the title in his rookie season. “The sister car has predominantly been quicker than us, but we’ve been ultra-consistent – I think the best men won.”
Sustained opposition failed to materialise elsewhere as Silverstone 500 victors, the Silver-Am Garage 59 McLaren of Adam Smalley and Shaun Balfe, only claimed two other podiums, while Gotz/Tse’s race-winning season was hampered by three non-scores.
GT4: Optimum’s road to redemption
Redemption. That’s what the past 12 months have been geared towards for Optimum Motorsport, its drivers clinching the 2024 British GT4 crown to overcome the team’s agony of the previous season.
Such was the early dominance of the McLaren squad last year, Charles Clark and Jack Brown could have claimed the title at Algarve, race seven of nine, before a remarkable run of unfortunate events. The Artura first limped to ninth in Portugal after it suffered early damage when Century BMW’s Carl Cavers hit the rear. Not a huge disaster, though, as in tennis terms, Optimum still had two championship points, but mechanical faults at Brands Hatch and Donington Park prompted non-scores that handed the title to Academy Motorsport’s Erik Evans and Matt Cowley.
“We were hurt by last year’s outcome,” says Optimum boss Shaun Goff. “We thought we could wrap things up with a couple of rounds to go and it just fell away from us. So we worked really hard over the winter and McLaren was very proactive in putting things right for this year.”
One thing that changed for Optimum was its driver line-up: out went Clark and in came teenager Zac Meakin, who contested his rookie campaign in 2023 with Team Parker Racing.
On paper, the line-up was strong and Brown “knew we would be at the sharp end the whole year”, but the competition was sterner. The 2017 GT3 champion Seb Morris was set for his maiden GT4 campaign, while Forsetti Motorsport shocked everybody in its debut season by eventually clinching the teams’ title.
“I couldn’t get too excited about it. We’d been there last year, so I just knew what we had to do" Jack Brown
The Aston Martin squad won the Oulton Park opener with its all-teenage pairing of Jamie Day and Mikey Porter, but Morris and Team Parker Mercedes co-driver Charles Dawson left leading the championship having won that weekend’s second race after also taking a podium in the first encounter.
Brown thought “Oulton was a bit disappointing” as Optimum finished third and fourth in the races, but the team remained calm knowing it had a strong package. That quickly became evident, and the title pendulum soon swung in Optimum’s favour. It began with a superb comeback drive at Silverstone, where Meakin dropped from pole to fourth at the start. But such was the superiority of the Artura that April weekend, it reclaimed the lead in the second of three hours before winning comfortably.
The eventual champions then achieved the notoriously difficult feat of triumphing in back-to-back races, as Meakin/Brown overcame a 20-second success penalty at Donington Park while Morris/Dawson retired and Day/Porter finished seventh after a 64s stop/go penalty for leaving the pitbox too early – a “communication error,” per Forsetti boss Joe Holloway.
It gave the Optimum pair a whopping 26-point championship lead, yet Brown was not getting carried away. “I couldn’t get too excited about it,” he recalls, “we’d been there last year, so I just knew what we had to do.”
Brown, who was in his fourth year in the series, certainly had to stay calm as that lead was eradicated. Their poor run culminated with the second Donington visit, where Brown finished third on track but was dropped to 11th after a 30s penalty for speeding under yellows due to a mishap with the speed limiter button.
It gave Day/Porter a 3.5-point title advantage ahead of the Brands Hatch finale, with Goff revealing “it gave us the attitude of whoever’s going to finish ahead is pretty much going to win the championship”. Morris/Dawson and Forsetti’s other entry of William Orton and Marc Warren also had an outside shot of the title, but the focus at Brands was largely on the two frontrunners.
The spotlight increased when Day and Meakin contested a dramatic wheel-to-wheel battle during the opening stint for not only the race lead, but also the championship. Day delivered a robust defence, with the pair even colliding up Hailwoods Hill, but polesitter Meakin finally reclaimed the lead through Surtees after 30 of the scheduled 120 minutes.
“With the pace deficit to the McLaren, it was going to be so hard to catch them back up if they got in front of me,” says Day, who received a black-and-white flag for his defensive manoeuvres. “So I knew I had to race aggressively and defend my position.”
Day was ultimately proven right, as Meakin gained 20s before the driver change, which occurred under yellow-flag conditions due to a GT3 crash. It became a safety car for the restart and Optimum had gained a lap by default after pitting early, leaving the championship a foregone conclusion in what was “a very easy stint” for Brown. “When we won, I was like, ‘Yes, that’s exactly where I need to be’,” he adds. “It was overdue and what everyone kind of expected to happen – it was a great feeling."
Top 5 GT3 drivers
5. Ricky Collard
The rookie worked flawlessly with his father and showed great maturity all year in which his calculated drive at the Brands finale sealed the title. He often struggled compared to Mitchell in the sister Lamborghini, though, and failed to finish a Pro qualifying session inside the top three.
4. Adam Smalley
An impressive rookie campaign from the 23-year-old, who often drove like a British GT veteran. His youthfulness worked well with experienced co-driver Shaun Balfe and the Silverstone victors sealed Silver-Am crown with two events to go before having a hugely outside shot of overall glory on the final day.
3. Rob Collard
A high rating for an amateur driver, but Collard deserves it having been the best bronze-graded competitor by quite some distance. He found a level of consistency that other Ams didn’t and his error-free campaign was the crucial factor in himself and son Ricky claiming the title.
2. Maximilian Gotz
The qualities of the 2021 DTM champion shone through despite an up-and-down year for the #18 Mercedes. Gotz brought out the best in co-driver Kevin Tse to take an impressive two victories during the German’s debut campaign, which included a dominant win from pole at Spa.
1. Sandy Mitchell
British GT’s benchmark driver all year, who lost the title because of factors not in his control. His best drive was arguably May’s Donington Park round, as he stormed from third to first in the final 40 minutes for one of three wins in 2024 – the most of any car.
Top 5 GT4 drivers
5. Mikey Porter
It was impressive how quickly the 17-year-old adapted in his rookie season, as Porter climbed from eighth to first in his stint in Oulton Park race two. But such speed only happened in parts, as one win to Optimum’s four meant Porter/Day were beaten to the title.
4. Jack Brown
The level-headed veteran shrugged off the heartache of 2023 by completing a title-winning campaign this year. His driving even went up a level, most evident at Donington Park in May where Brown charged from third to first in the final hour for one of four victories in 2024.
3. Seb Morris
The 2017 British GT3 champion impressed during his maiden GT4 campaign with a win and three other podiums. Morris showed great maturity, something he has perhaps lacked in the past, and improved as the season went on, which culminated in a calculated Brands drive to seal the Pro-Am crown.
2. Jamie Day
Another teenager who starred in 2024, as Day led a title challenge for championship newcomer Forsetti Motorsport. It began with the Oulton Park opener, where the series returnee was quickest in qualifying by 0.8s before dominating race one from pole, yet failed to win again in 2024.
1. Zac Meakin
Meakin showed incredible consistency as the 17-year-old finished a qualifying session outside of the top three just once. The sophomore replicated that form in race trim and his impressive comeback from third to first at Brands ultimately won him and Jack Brown the GT4 crown.
