A fighting podium place and important points haul has kept reigning champ Sandy Mitchell in the British GT title hunt after the latest double-header round at Snetterton.
The Angus 21-year-old and team-mate Adam Balon left the Norfolk circuit with a second and fourth place in their No. 1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, prepared by Barwell Motorsport.
Mitchell heads to the next round at Oulton Park in Cheshire deep in the fight to retain his crown.
The young Lamborghini factory driver said: “To walk away from the weekend, especially given the mixed weather conditions we had — sunshine, wind and heavy rain — with a P2 and P4 in the championship standings in the two one-hour races is excellent.
“We handled the first race well. Adam did a solid job in his stint, then I had a lot of pace at the start of my stint before I had to manage a rear brake issue over the final 20 minutes.”
But while the first race at the Norfolk circuit was run in dry conditions, minutes before the start of the second one-hour race the skies opened.
Again starting from fourth on the grid, Mitchell was up to third exiting the first corner, but was then overtaken by the #97 Aston Martin.
After a short safety car period, the young Taysider eased passed the No. 63 sister Barwell Lamborghini and championship leader when Dane Dennis Lind ran wide.
Cutback overtake
Nine minutes later, he produced a dazzling overtake with a strong cutback manoeuvre to re-pass the Aston Martin for P2.
Mitchell, from Letham, near Forfar said: “I was pleased with that move. I settled into a good rhythm at the start of the race and it looked like our car was set up a little bit more for longer distance than the Aston.
“After that I was able to set a couple of fastest laps in the wet conditions and started closing in on the lead Mercedes.
“Following our driver change, Adam chased the Mercedes down for the first few laps.
“But then I think our tyres started to go off a little bit as they got hot as the track dried and we opted to consolidate our second place.”
Oulton Park in September features two more one-hour sprint races with Mitchell and Balon sitting just 19.5 points off the sister Barwell car of Lind and Leo Machitski which leads the championship.