Barwell Motorsport debuted two of their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 fleet last weekend at Brands Hatch and revelled in a podium finish at the first round of the British GT Championship, with third place for the Liam Griffin/Fabio Babini car. This also continued our run of BGT top three finishes starting from the first round of 2015, making it their 8th consecutive podium finish at a British GT meeting. Unfortunately we also had to endure the agony of the sister Huracan of Jon Minshaw/Phil Keen being taken out of the race, whilst running second, by an errant GT4 Ginetta.

After an extensive preseason test programme, the Barwell crew kicked off their 2016 season in Kent for the British GT Championship opener. A change to the traditional BGT calendar saw Brands Hatch host the opening round with a single two-hour sprint around the GP configuration.

2016 marks the 10th year that Barwell Motorsport have competed in British GT, and the decade commemoration will certainly be a year to remember with the arrival of the team’s Huracan GT3 squad. Two of the Barwell Lamborghinis will feature as full season entries, with the third Italian machine making a guest appearance or two later on in the year.

The Huracan trio are not the only new element to Barwell Motorsport this season, as Liam Griffin will share his first year with the team alongside two pro drivers. Due to BMW factory commitments during the first half of the season, Alexander Sims will partner Griffin from Silverstone’s round four onwards and platinum-graded Lamborghini factory driver Fabio Babini filling in for the first three rounds, took the PRO honours at Brands Hatch. Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen have returned for their second season with the Surrey-based outfit and after their podium successes of last year, winning is certainly the aim for this season.

Liam Griffin in the #6 Irish TV Lamborghini proved that he has adapted well to the rear-engined V10 by setting a time good enough for third in the AM qualifying session, only one tenth off pole and a mere 0.091 seconds behind the TF Sport Aston piloted by Derek Johnston in second. Griffin’s time combined with Fabio Babini’s PRO time established them in fifth for the race start the following day. In the #33 Demon Tweeks machine, Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen’s stellar combined efforts put them on the outside of the front row grid, beside the pole sitting Team Parker Racing Bentley.

After winning the 2015 race at Brands Hatch the team were certainly looking for a repeated success and more with the double entry, but that vision was rather short lived. Jon Minshaw was in the hot seat for the start of the two-hour chase and was holding a very comfortable second position, when he was taken out by a wayward GT4 back marker. Minshaw was unable to continue showcasing his tremendous pace, as the Demon Tweeks backed Lamborghini was sadly unable to continue after suffering rear suspension damage. Keen and Minshaw certainly had the pace to win the race, and with only two weeks until round two at Rockingham, they are itching to show that they are more than capable to come out on top.

Griffin had a great start and moved straight up to fourth in the first lap despite the pressure behind from Lee Mowle in the BMW Z4 and Alasdair McCaig in the McLaren. The move up to third came after retirement from Minshaw and it was only a small matter of time before Liam had hunted down Johnston and passed him at Druids to claim second position. Sector one of Brands Hatch GP appeared to be Griffin’s strongest part of the circuit throughout the entire weekend and this was proven when he was closing in on the front runner Parfitt and during most laps he was taking half a second out of the gap just within the first few corners. Unfortunately for Griffin, he was unable to continue his great pace after a substantial accident between three cars at Pilgrims Drop called the race to be brought into a ‘Code 80’. The full course yellow procedure meant that everybody had to slow down to 80kmh whilst the incident was being cleared and barriers repaired, so Liam held second place until the pit stop window opened and he handed over to Babini. The perfect stop performed by the Barwell Motorsport crew helped Fabio to jump ahead of the Bentley to take the lead out of the cars that had stopped on that lap, and what should have become the race lead. But this advantage was quickly diminished as Babini, along with the another six front runners who had stopped, were held up by the McLaren GT4 back marker who was going along at 60kmh instead of the mandatory 80kmh. This then helped the TF Sport Aston Martin of Johnston/Adam, who pitted a lap later, and appeared with a 20 second lead. After a lengthy 40 minutes the Code 80 was lifted, but Babini was passed under yellow flags on the restart by Joe Osborne in the AMD BMW Z4. He then fell into the clutches of the Bentley who passed him at Surtees, before the race was red flagged with 23 minutes left on the clock due to a fire in the Tolman Ginetta GT3.

Although finishing fourth on the road, Griffin and Babini regained third position after Osborne was given a time penalty for his overtake on Fabio under yellows. It was unfortunate not to celebrate their success on the podium, but Liam’s sterling efforts throughout the opening round were recognised and he was presented with the Blancpain Gentlemen Driver of the Weekend Award. With only a couple of weeks to go until round two at Rockingham, and the season opener of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza this weekend, the crew at flat out at the Barwell Motorsport HQ. The Barwell British GT line up showed great pace at Brands Hatch, but the best is yet to come, a double podium is certainly on the cards for the 2016 season!