Reigning British GT champions Barwell Motorsport are the undeniable GT3 class benchmark heading into the upcoming 2025 campaign.
They claimed six pole positions and five victories out of nine races last year, resulting in a 1-2 finish in the standings for their pair of Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s.
Rob Collard, who won the 2024 Drivers’ title with his son Ricky, though suffered a late blow to the beginning of his season in the form of an unforeseen medical procedure that hit just days before the seasn-launching media day.
GT4 Pro-Am class champion Matt Topham had just two days’ notice before he stepped in the driver’s seat to replace Collard as a co-driver with 20-year-old GT racing star Hugo Cook.
“Big massive shame, he’s absolutely devastated, ” team principal Mark Lemmer told DSC.
“If it had come up two months ago, it would have been sorted by now and he wouldn’t be missing the first round, possibly two, but he’s keen to get back in the car as soon as possible.
“But yeah… obviously we’re just going to try to get Matt up to speed as much as possible, trying to give him all the knowledge and data and tools we can to just get him as comfortable.
“We said no pressure on lap time at all today, just learn, learn, learn.
“So he’s in at the deep end but hes doing really well.
“He’s feeling the car nicely and young Hugo [Cook] is really settling in nicely.”
Barwell expects Collard’s absence for the opening round at Donington Park on 5-6 April and possibly the second – the renowned Silverstone 500 on 26-27 April.
It is the longest round on the calendar as it runs for three hours around the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on which teams drove around on media day.
Meanwhile the team’s other #78 Lamborghini will continue with duo Alex Martin and Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell.
Optimism arises with professional drivers amidst initial setbacks
The #1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 suffered a gearbox issue which halted running in the morning as Martin completed only four laps in the morning – plus six in the afternoon – before leaving prematurely due to a family engagement.
Barwell Motorsport were nevertheless satisfied with the productive momentum at Silverstone.
Lemmer continued: “To be fair, now we’re getting some really good quality running done.
“The upside of Alex missing out [and] the good thing is he was quick as soon as he was in the car.
“Sometimes when you’re rusty over the winter, and I can vouch for this, [you] get in the car and think ‘Oh this is going to take a while’.
“He got in the car and he said it feels like I just got out of the car yesterday at Brands Hatch.
“So that’s a great sign,” he said with confidence.
“But the flip side of that, is that we’ve got Sandy [Mitchell] and Patrick [Kujala] here for the afternoon and we’ve got five hours of professional test time where we can really work through some bits and pieces on the new tyre.
“So that’s a privilege that Pro-Am teams don’t often get, is two pros to just work through a juicy test programme.”
Across both the #1 and the #78 Lamborghinis, Barwell completed 188 laps in total on the media day.
Mitchell put the #78 Lamborghini third fastest in the afternoon test session with a 1:58.097 lap time and worked with Kujala towards 70 laps completed.
New Pirelli wet tyre ‘huge change’ in wet conditions
Barwell Motorsport’s other major programme in the GT World Challenge Europe series is organised by the SRO Motorsports Group just as with British GT.
The team conducted testing in March with the updated DHG Pirelli tyre compound which replaced the DHF from last year.
“So the new slick, it’s just a small evolution,” summarised Lemmer.
“Most of what we already have, most of the tools we have in the toolbox work on this tyre.
“The base setup works on this tyre. It’s not a massive change.
“In the wet, a huge change!
“When we went to do our dry weather, two days in Valencia, two days in [Paul] Ricard, it rained for three of those days so there’s absolutely nothing we don’t know about the wet tyre now.
“Pirelli have done an excellent job. It’s a massive step forward.
“Over two seconds a lap faster in the wet, in the damp.
“It holds on better into the dry [conditions].
“They’ve done a fantastic job… it’s like five steps forward.”
British GT’s schedule includes a one-off stop outside the United Kingdom at Spa-Francorchamps with a two-hour race one weekend prior to the 24 Hours of Spa on 25-29 June.
Incidentally, Barwell are marking their ninth start at the twice round-the-clock race which celebrated its Centenary edition last year.
They have three consecutive class wins under their name and are set to compete in the Pro-Am category alike in British GT.
“So going to make Spa a tiny bit easier,” Lemmer said in reference to the persistent wet weather challenges offered by Spa.
“[As for] the crossover point and the tyre, it clears water well – it switches on well.
“It’s a little bit safer.”
The Donington Park British GT Championship season opener takes place in just over a week’s time.
At last, the British GT season will soon kick off with a 180-minute endurance race to put Barwell under pressure to outshine against 13 other GT3 class competitors and commence their title defence on a strong note.
