It’s a huge week for Lamborghini Squadra Corse and its customer GT racing set up. Fresh from a historic maiden victory at the Spa 24 Hours, the proud Italian marque is set to reveal its new-for-2026 Temerario GT3 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Friday.
The outgoing Huracán GT3 has become quite the platform over the past decade, racking up 192 victories and 96 titles to date, attracting a number of key customer teams along the way.
From its fast start at Monza back in 2015, when Grasser Racing powered the car to a famous win on debut in the Blancpain GT Series, to its Spa 24 glory run this year with the same Austrian team, the car has steadily improved. A combination of investment from the brand and two timely evo kits has helped craft one of the more well-rounded cars in the current era of GT3 racing.
The Huracán GT3 EVO2 will, of course, continue racing around the world for years to come as the Sant’Agata brand undertakes the transition to the Temerario, but its days as the flagship GT racer for the brand are now numbered.
As a result, for factory ace Mirko Bortolotti, the win at Spa was as emotional as it was exhausting. It was a performance that further cemented his position as one of the best GT drivers of his generation. And having played a key part in the car’s initial development way back in 2014, and built his CV on its successes as the star driver in the works stable in the years since, it meant the world.
“The hard work paid off,” he tells DSC. “It was a tough race, but we were brave on strategy and took risks. We expected more yellows, but the race was well managed and in the end, we managed the tyres in a really good way in the hot conditions, which gave us an edge to open up a little bit of a gap when we needed it.
“It was hugely important for me, the brand, the team, to win at Spa and a dream come true, after the 10 attempts before. You can imagine how big it is for us and for me. All the setbacks and all the things we’ve learned in recent years made us take the steps we needed to win this one.”
By the time he crossed the line, having gapped the chasing Rutronik Porsche, he was on the verge of collapse. His Iron Man stint in the heat at the end left him so drained that he barely made the podium and was forced to skip the post-race presser. While his teammates Jordan Pepper and Luca Engstler were waxing lyrical about the Grasser team’s performance and the significance of the moment to the media, he was “in the medical centre with the intravenous”.
Unsurprisingly, the victory truly hasn’t sunk in yet for the 35-year-old. Not only were the post-race celebrations disrupted by his stint in the circuit medical centre, but he was back in action again at the Norisring for the DTM meeting last weekend, just a handful of days later, feeling “fresh and recharged”.
“I don’t care too much about the celebrations, what matters is we won it,” Bortolotti adds. “But I’m sure we will have the whole team together in the factory for time to celebrate, and I think the car will go to the museum, which is something special.”
In the meantime, this week offers a chance to reflect on how far Lamborghini has come in the GT3 sphere with the Huracán project, and look to the future with its forthcoming challenger.
“We had a solid platform to start with, and it was solid straight away,” Bortolotti says of the Huracán. “We developed the car together with Audi while it was working on the R8 LMS, and there was good synergy back then.
“The first version definitely had some weaknesses that we addressed to ensure it was suitable for professionals and gentlemen drivers. We then found a good compromise on the first evo, which went on to win Daytona for a second time and Sebring.
“It’s GT3 racing, so we didn’t find pure performance over the years; that was not the main goal. What we did was manage to widen the performance window for the car, and that’s certainly what made the Evo II so effective; it ensured the car went in the right direction for both sprint and endurance races.
“Looking back, I’ll always remember that first race at Monza (above). It wasn’t a good race for my car, but the sister car went on to win, so it was a great start to the project. Then, for me, the Daytona win (in 2018 with GRT) was special, as it was the first-ever 24-hour win for Lamborghini and the first 24-hour win for me. That was a big memory.
“I also reflect a lot on the wins at Sebring, Road Atlanta, and my first GT World Challenge (then Blanpain GT Series) titles in 2017, taking the overall and endurance titles a few months before we won the Rolex 24 (below).
“And then more recently, my DTM championship last year with SSR, which came after three seasons of missing out on the very last day. It was unforgettable.
“Then we have the Spa win, of course, which was a fairytale. The circle is definitely complete, because it’s the best send-off we could give to the car.
“There are always different goals for us each weekend, plus we have the new project, which started a few weeks ago. We’re going to try and keep building on what we have as much as we can, adapt the platform, the new chassis and everything that comes with it. It’s great to be a part of it, to see a new product come to life and develop day by day.
“And what will make me most proud is to see the car perform well at its first race.”
Images courtesy of Marcel Wulf, Frozenspeed, Dan Bathie, Martin Spetz and DTM
