Brands Hatch victory has catapulted Angus star Sandy Mitchell into the lead of the British GT Championship.
The 20-year-old and teammate Rob Collard scored their first overall victory of the season in the Black Bull Lamborghini Huracan Evo GT3, starting from second on the grid.
BTCC veteran Collard held that position in the opening stint of the two-hour race, but a super-smooth Barwell Motorsport pit-stop during the compulsory driver change saw 20-year-old Mitchell jump into a lead he held until the chequered flag.
A safety car period with 36 minutes of the race left – ironically after the car driven by Collard’s son, Jordan, was forced to stop when a rear-left tyre suddenly deflated – saw a comfortable two-second advantage evaporate for Mitchell, part of the Lamborghini Squadra Corse GT3 junior program
“It certainly wasn’t what I needed at the time,” said the Letham driver. “I was managing the gap to the car behind me quite comfortably, but knew that advantage would disappear immediately.
“After that it was all about pacing myself and maximising the fact I had a clear track ahead of me to ensure I maintained the gap to the car behind me.
“I don’t think the gap was ever more than a second-and-a-half until the penultimate lap when we caught the GT4 leaders.
“I then had to work my way past four tightly-packed cars all battling for their own class win. After that it was a sprint to the line over the last lap.”
Mitchell took the chequered flag to win by just 0.649secs ahead of the second-placed car, with the top four cars covered by less than two-seconds.
“That shows exactly how competitive the British GT Championship is, and why it’s the toughest championship in Europe,” he said.
“The team did a great job, both in qualifying and throughout the race, plus Rob did a brilliant first stint. It’s great to finally be able to give the team, and all my sponsors, the first win of the season.”
With three rounds and four races remaining, Mitchell and Collard now lead the title race by 16.5 points and have also extended their lead in the Silver Cup category by the same margin.
