Sandy Mitchell is under no illusion that the recognition gained for success in British GT pales in comparison to that of the British Touring Car Championship. Take the fan-voted Autosport National Driver Award for instance. A BTCC competitor has won all but five editions of it since 2008 and none of the exceptions have gone to a British GT driver.
So in speaking to Autosport, Mitchell claimed “it would be good to see it celebrated more equally” as he accepted his nomination for this year’s award would go no further - despite an absolutely stellar 2024 campaign aboard a Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Is he therefore one of the most under-appreciated British talents in motorsport?
Although the Lamborghini factory star and his new-for-2024 co-driver Alex Martin only finished runner-up to Barwell team-mates Rob and Ricky Collard, Mitchell arguably displayed greater dominance over his competitors than any national driver throughout the year.
He was fastest in Pro Qualifying on four of seven occasions, took maximum points four times and eventually became a double recipient of the Allan Simonsen Award - effectively British GT’s driver of the year honour. Losing the title thus didn’t affect Mitchell's self-assessment of his campaign.
“I felt very comfortable in the car and we made some good progression,” says the 24-year-old, who was born just an hour from Knockhill. “I was confident and, yes, definitely the most successful I've been within British GT. I think you can put that down as my best season even though it wasn't a championship-winning year.”
So, there was a sense of injustice that Mitchell failed to add to his 2020 series crown, which he won with Rob Collard. It wasn’t the Scotman’s fault either and Snetterton, the campaign’s fifth event, was the defining moment. Mitchell was on top form that weekend and played a key role in the provisional double victory for him and Martin. Had the result of the second one-hour contest stood, it would have given them a 22-point championship lead with two rounds and 75 points remaining - so quite the difference to overhaul.
But the officials had other ideas. Martin had lapped GT4 traffic under late safety car conditions, resulting in a post-race 30-second penalty, which dropped the pair to 10th. It helped push the Collards up to second in the final race classification, allowing the father-son duo to instead leave Norfolk with a five-point championship lead. Thus the pendulum of the title fight swung in an instant.
Of course, there was still time for the #78 Huracan to reclaim top spot, yet a puncture for Martin during the penultimate race at Donington Park all but ended their championship fight. So for Mitchell, it was another year of coming up short despite being one of the championship’s best and most consistent drivers since his GT3 debut in 2020.
After winning the title as a rookie, he has finished inside the top four every year as well as becoming a two-time class winner at the prestigious Spa 24 Hours and officially joining Lamborghini’s books. It is this relationship with the Italian marque that makes Mitchell confident the recognition, and trophies, will eventually follow.
"Sometimes it can be seen as one of the trickier cars to drive. But it’s a really exciting car: it’s loud, fun and a bit edgy" Sandy Mitchell
“I have built a good relationship with Lamborghini and I'm much more established now,” says Mitchell. “I’ve come up through their junior driver programme, so I feel very much part of the Squadra Corse family. It's been a fantastic journey, so of course I'd like to stick with them and being successful together is the main aim.”
There are not many young factory drivers that are as embedded with their manufacturer as Mitchell is with Lamborghini. The only GT3 cars he has driven have come out of Sant’Agata Bolognese and, since joining its ranks at the start of 2021, Mitchell has fine-tuned his skills to perfectly match the Huracan - which is finally set to bow out at the end of the season. Lamborghini will replace a car that is now on its second Evo cycle with the new Temerario model for 2026.
“Sometimes it can be seen as one of the trickier cars to drive,” he says. “But it’s a really exciting car: it’s loud, fun and a bit edgy.
“The big thing with the Lamborghini is that you've got a big V10 engine in the back, which is quite big compared to other brands that maybe use smaller engines like a V6. So that weight behind means the car can behave quite differently to a front-engined car, like a Mercedes or an Aston Martin, and using that weight and the inertia that it has in the corner to rotate the car is key to getting the car to go quickly.”
Although Mitchell spoke of the late, great Colin McRae as his idol growing up, he hasn’t adopted techniques used by the 1995 World Rally champion.
“I wouldn't say my driving style is similar to his, I'm probably a little bit calmer,” Mitchell jests, before adding he hopes to contest a rally later in his career. Instead, his biggest influences are two fellow British GT competitors who are tied for the most overall wins [19] in the series: Phil Keen and Jonny Adam.
Keen was at Barwell during Mitchell’s title-winning year, allowing the youngster to gain a lot of racing tips from the championship stalwart. Adam, meanwhile, previously served as a coach for his fellow Scotsman, who may surpass his record of four British GT crowns.
But is Mitchell motivated by breaking national records, or are his sights much greater? He is a regular in the bronze class of GT World Challenge Europe, having finished second alongside Rob Collard in the 2024 Sprint Cup standings, but the Endurance Cup was his only other regular international commitment of the year and didn't involve fighting for overall honours like in British GT.
“The main thing is to race in the biggest championships in the world and represent Lamborghini, either in America, Europe or Asia,” he says. “You'd love to be able to call yourself a world champion, whether that's the World Endurance Championship or something like that, and winning Le Mans - the pinnacle of what we do.
“I'd love to win the big races throughout the world: the Daytona 24 Hours and Spa 24 Hours as well. It’s a race [Spa] that I've stood on the top step in class before, but to go to Spa and win overall is a big dream of mine and I think it’s also a target for Lamborghini. So I'd like to be seen as one of the top drivers globally and that's my real aim, to be one of the elite sportscar drivers.”
Of course, that would entail a transition into Hypercar machinery, something Mitchell would “love to have a go in”. It’s also realistic as Lamborghini is in the top category of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, despite recently withdrawing from the WEC.
There is also the possibility of moving into single-driver GT3 racing. DTM is firmly in Mitchell’s sights, given Lamborghini has a huge presence in the series and it means he wouldn’t have to rely on a co-driver to succeed.
It is clear that, although Mitchell loves national racing, the level-headed figure realises the potential is there to compete on a world stage. Still at a relatively young age, as he continues to develop that relationship with Lamborghini, his bosses will no doubt appreciate Mitchell's determination to learn Italian in 2025.
Yet he is also eager, before any move into top championships across the globe, to belatedly celebrate a British GT title properly given the restrictions imposed during a 2020 season affected by COVID-19.
“It feels like a little while ago now with it being 2020 and it was strange,” he concludes. “It was quite good during the year, because British GT allowed spectators to attend as long as they were socially distanced. But then, for the last round at Silverstone, they weren’t able to come.
“It was a little bit of a shame because my family also couldn’t be there and there weren't any fans to celebrate with. It’d be cool to experience all of that with everyone this time, so I’d definitely like to win British GT again and hopefully this is the year we can make another push for it.”
The jigsaw pieces are coming together for Mitchell. As he is only maturing and getting better, perhaps soon he will stop being one of GT racing’s most under-appreciated stars.
