A Brands Hatch fifth place was a case of what might have been for Angus ace Sandy Mitchell in the penultimate round of his British GT season.
So the 23-year-old Lamborghini factory driver from Forfar is already focused on finishing the season strongly at next month’s ‘Donington Decider’.
2020 series champion Mitchell and teammate Shaun Balfe started from third on the grid in their Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2.
Balfe immediately eased himself into second place at turn one and comfortably held the gap to the leader.
The opening 64-minute stint was punctuated by two safety car periods, and Balfe retained second spot when he pitted to hand the car over to Mitchell.
But having completed the pitstop and served the extra 10-second success penalty — a result of having finished third last time out at Portimao in Portugal — the Angus star was forced to sit and watch a string of five cars pass him before he could be released from his pit box.
Boxed in
“It was just really unfortunate timing,” said Mitchell.
“Just as I was about to be released, a queue of other cars exited.
“We had no alternative but to sit and let them roll past.”
He moved past one rival and instantly set his fastest lap of the race to bring himself up to the rear of a bumper-to-bumper line of three Mercedes.
Mitchell then spent the next 37 minutes hounding the pack ahead.
With two minutes of the two-hour race left the car ahead ran out of fuel, promoting him to an ultimately frustrating fifth place.
“We threw everything we had at that race after the pitstop,” he said.
“I knew over the full lap I had a quicker car, but because Brands Hatch is such a difficult place to overtake it’s hard to fight through the field, despite having such strong pace.
“Falling back at the pitstop was frustrating, because if I’d been able to exit ahead of those cars I know I had the pace to stay in front.
“Shaun and everyone in the Barwell team did an excellent job this weekend.
“Now we head to Donington next month for the final two-hour race in the championship, determined to finish on a high and bag our second win of the season.”
Fellow Scot Jonny Adam remains in contention for his fifth British GT crown.
He and teammate James Cottingham filled the final podium place to remain at the top of the drivers’ standings.
The final two-hour race is at Donington Park near Derby on October 21/22.
