Scots endurance racer and former British GT champ, Sandy Mitchell, heads to Snetterton this weekend (June 25/26) for the championship’s latest double-header determined to get back on the top step of the podium.
The 22-year-old from Forfar, partnered by team-mate Adam Balon in the No 72 (#72) Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo prepared by Barwell Motorsport, has fond memories of the Norfolk track.
“Snetterton has definitely played an important role in my sportscar career,” Mitchell, personally backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky and Lamborghini Edinburgh, explained.
“It’s where I won my first-ever British GT4 race, and I’ve regularly either won a race on my visit or finished on the podium.”
Mitchell became the youngest-ever British GT winner, aged 16 years 169 days — a record which still stands today — when he won the GT4 race at the fast Norfolk circuit in 2016.
This season Mitchell and Balon have already won the British GT’s Blue Riband event, the three-hour Silverstone 500. And after finishing on the podium at Snetterton last season, the duo are eyeing victory in at least one of this weekend’s two one-hour races.
“Snetterton marks the mid-point of the British GT season, so it’s crucial Adam and I leave Norfolk with a good haul of points this weekend, and ideally a race win,” Mitchell, a Lamborghini factory driver and member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, stated.
“The last couple of British GT races have each been three hours, so switching back to two 60-minute races in a day demands a completely different set-up for both the drivers and team.
“Snetterton’s a pretty cool circuit. It’s quite long, which is nice and includes a good mix of demands, with tight, twisty bits and long fast sections. It’s a good combination.
“The last section of the circuit is the most demanding. But it’s also somewhere you can definitely make a lot of time up by getting it right.
“We’ve won sprint races at Snetterton before, and we know how good the guys at Barwell are at setting up the car, so we head to Norfolk with a really strong chance of achieving the results we want.”