Lamborghini star Sandy Mitchell delivered a textbook drive to keep a proud Snetterton record intact in the British GT Championship.
The Forfar 23-year-old and teammate Shaun Balfe were imperious in a lights-to-flag victory in the opening one-hour race of a weekend double header at the Norfolk circuit.
It means Mitchell maintains his record of having finished on the podium every year since 2020 at the fast 2.96-mile track.
And a first win of the season was a big boost for the Barwell Motorsport duo ahead of the series’ only European round next month.
The championship reached its mid-point at the weekend and Balfe started their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 from pole position in the opener.
He fended off an early challenge from chasing rivals before setting about extending his advantage at the front of the field.
By the time he pitted to hand the Lamborghini over to 2020 British GT champ Mitchell, the advantage had opened to 5.4secs.
Fastest lap at Snetterton
Mitchell said: “Shaun drove a brilliant stint to open up a solid gap.
“His excellent performance in qualifying which put us on pole position really laid the foundation for our push to the win.
“Once I took over the car it was a case of quickly imposing myself on the rest of the Pro field, extending the lead and then maintaining it over the final few laps.”
He did just that, finishing 11 seconds clear of the field.
“We decided early in the weekend to maximise our tyre strategy for the opening race, which was definitely the right call.
“And in the end we executed a perfect race.”
Mitchell’s pace was so strong he posted back-to-back fastest laps of the race.
And he was quick to pay tribute to his Barwell crew which had to change the gearbox in the Lamborghini in the 60 minutes before qualifying.
“It was crucial they managed it otherwise we would have missed qualifying and obviously wouldn’t have the race win.
“We achieved our primary goal in the second race, which was to score more championship points,” said Mitchell, backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky, Tunnocks, Lamborghini Edinburgh, Upper Dysart and Alan Davie Transport.
“We knew the combination of our starting position and the race win success penalty was going to make it tough.
“Without those extra ten seconds at the driver changeover we’d have been mixing it with the top four cars at the end.
“Getting our first win of the season is a terrific boost for everyone in the Barwell team.”
It was also Lamborghini’s first British GT victory with the Evo2 version of the GT3 Huracan.
Mitchell added: “Importantly, we also now head to the next round, the three-hour race at Portimao in Portugal, without any additional time penalties, which is a big bonus.”
