Barwell Motorsport have come away from Spa with more points in the bag, after a demanding two-hour run around the Ardennes circuit with their duo of Lamborghini Huracan GT3s, for the fifth round of the British GT Championship. An incredibly determined charge by Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen saw them finish a very impressive 6th, the 3rd full season BGT finisher, after overcoming their 20 second success penalty from their Silverstone victory last time out. Liam Griffin and Alexander Sims were not far behind in 8th place, again recovering well after a first corner incident which dropped them from P3 to 14th.
A colossal 61 car entry for the weekend would prove a challenge for the drivers to gain quality track time before the race on the Saturday, and this was made even more arduous when both free practice sessions were marred by red flags. Despite FP1 being cut short due to necessary barrier repairs following a huge accident involving the championship leading TF Sport Aston Martin and the Team Parker Racing guest entry Bentley, Phil Keen managed to place the #33 Demon Tweeks backed Lamborghini in P2, a mere four tenths of a second off Morris in the #31 Bentley.
The circuit had stayed dry until the dying moments of the Pro qualifying session and despite having to abort what would have been his fastest lap due to rain emerging at Les Combes, Alexander Sims set the second-fastest time of the Pros, which pushed the #6 Irish TV backed Huracan from 9th up to 5th position, the highest qualifying Lamborghini. Unfortunately, the team made a rare and uncharacteristic mistake with the tyres on the #33 Demon Tweeks Lamborghini, which meant that Minshaw was unable to set a representative time in his session and the aggregate time placed Jon and Phil in 16th place for the race the following day.
With no customary morning warm up period, the team went straight into the race and with the feeling of victory still fresh in their minds from Silverstone, the Demon Tweeks duo were not going to let starting from the back of the grid become a major obstacle, and a fired up Minshaw proved this by rocketing from 16th to 9th position on his opening lap. There was no stopping the #33 Am as on lap seven, he made an immense three place jump up to 6th, disposing of the Optimum Audi, AMD’s BMW Z4 and the Black Falcon AMG Mercedes. Not only did Jon gain 10 positions in his stint, he also managed to pull a fantastic gap ahead of the #17 Aston Martin of Derek Johnston, this enabled Keeny to re-join the race without losing any track positions despite having to serve the 20 second success penalty from the Silverstone triumph. Phil managed to reduce the gap ahead and fend off Jonny Adam in the #17 Aston behind to cross the line in 6th position, which could have been a potential 3rd place finish, as three of the guest entries ahead of #33 had no penalties to serve during their pit stops.
Unfortunately, a very different set of events occurred for the #6 Huracan as a bold first corner charge by Griffin didn’t pay off, and it saw him make contact with the #31 pole-sitting Bentley which caused him to fall down the order to the back of the GT3 field and be handed a drive through penalty. With an absent bonnet and other front end damage, Liam did a good job of bringing the car in 13th position for the mandatory driver change pit stop, where the team did a great job to patch up the damage and fit a new bonnet before sending Sims out with no time lost. The #6 Pro wasted no time in making his mark as he set the fastest lap of the race on only the second lap of his stint, and continued to be the fastest man on circuit throughout the race during clear laps. Alexander’s great traffic management and rapid disposal of his rivals ahead resulted in him taking the flag in 8th place, a fantastic charge from the tail of the GT3 runners.
The weekend’s results see Jon and Phil remain sitting second in the driver’s championship standings, with Liam not far behind in fourth. The penultimate round of the British GT Championship will take place at Snetterton in Norfolk on the first weekend of August.
The Barwell crew now turn their attention to one of their biggest events of the year, the 24 Hours of Spa, where not only will they run their regular #78 Lamborghini with Leo Machitski, Marco Mapelli, Marco Attard and Tom Kimber-Smith, the team will return to Belgium with Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen as they make a one off appearance in the Blancpain GT Series alongside Joe Osborne and Oliver Gavin in the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini GT3.