July 13th, 2021

Scots endurance racer and British GT Champion, Sandy, was the fastest man on-track at Doninigton Park, as he overcame a 20-second success penalty to consolidate his charge towards retaining his title.

Partnered by team-mate Adam Balon in the No.1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, prepared by Barwell Motorsport, set the quickest lap of the race as he battled back through the ultra-competitive GT3 field. After an action-packed first 70-minutes of the two-hour race at the Leicestershire circuit — which saw the Safety Car on-track three times after incidents — Balon pitted from third in the race, just eight seconds behind the second-placed car and 10s off the lead.

When Sandy rejoined the race, having sat stationary for the extra 20s — a result of having scored maximum points last time out at Silverstone — he lay seventh, 14.5s off the No 7 Aston Martin in third and 28.8s off the lead. Within 10 minutes, Sandy was up to sixth. With 30 minutes remaining, he set the fastest lap of the race round the 2.48-mile circuit, clocking 1min 27.586s, and eased himself into fifth, just 8.3s off the car in fourth.

Sandy, a Lamborghini factory driver, in addition to being a member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s elite SuperStars programme, rattled off a series of quick laps and, with 15 minutes remain, was glued to the rear bumper of the fourth-placed No77 McLaren. Despite applying incessant pressure over the remaining laps — at one stage having to correct a wicked kick as the rear left wheel of his Lamborghini was pitched into the air as he was forced wide on to the grass while trying to overtake — he had to content himself with fifth overall, and fourth-placed GT3 ProAm car.

“That was a lot of fun,” Sandy, personally backed by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky, admitted. “With the 20s success penalty we had, this weekend was always going to be about damage limitation. Adam did a fantastic job in his first stint, and if it hadn’t been for the Safety Car bunching the field up on three occasions he would have been able to open up a bigger gap to to the cars behind. I really enjoyed my stint, but having caught the back of the #77 car, which in turn was right behind the #7 car, I just couldn’t find a way passed.”

When Sandy crossed the finish line, he and the other two cars were covered by just 0.651s, having started his stint 14.5s behind the #7 car. The result sees him and Balon move to third in the British GT Championship, just 15 points off the lead with six races remaining.

“Overall we’ve got to be happy with the weekend,” Sandy continued. “We started the race from third, served a 20s penalty, finished fifth and moved to third in the title race. Plus it means we head to the next two-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in a fortnight with no success penalty. This year’s championship was always going to be tough, but we’re right in the mix to defend the title.”