British GT champ Cocker in Lambo return
FORMER BRITISH GT CHAMPION Jonny Cocker will return to the series as part of an expanded Barwell Motorsport line-up next year that also features 2006 GT3 title-winner Leo Machitski.
Mark Lemmer’s team will add a third Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to its traditional two-car entry for the domestic GT3 campaign, with all three cars enjoying the continued technical support of Lamborghini factory team Squadra Corse.
This year’s championship runners-up, Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw, will return to race one car, while the second will be crewed by Machitski and rising Finnish driver Patrick Kujala. The team’s third car will feature 2004 champion Cocker sharing with racing novice Sam De Haan.
Cocker, who still holds the record as the youngest outright British GT champion at 18, has a long relationship with Barwell. He raced in the team’s Aston Martin line-up in 2007 and more recently stood in as a sub for Alexander Sims during its ’14 campaign with the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4s.
“Jonny has been coaching Sam and they share a common love for supercars, so this is ideal,” said team boss Lemmer. “Sam will be completely new to it, and still has some signatures to gain, but we’ve got loads of testing planned for him and he’s a very smart lad; he knows he’s got a steep learning curve ahead.
“Leo and Patrick will be interesting as Patrick is a superstar in the making in my eyes and pushed the factory Lambo drivers all the way in Blancpain [GT Series] in Europe this year, but a lot of the British tracks will be new to him.
“Phil and Jon deserve a title by now. They’re so proven and they’ll probably be the pairing to beat, purely down to their experience. But we’ve got three really strong cars for 2018.”
Lemmer added the team would start next season on a strong base because the Huracan is not due any performance upgrades until the end of the year.
“The Huracan is a great car and this year all of our data and set-ups will be relevant, so we know where we stand,” he said. “There will be a slightly new-construction rear tyre from Pirelli, but we’ve got plenty of testing planned to dial that in. We want a drivers’ title next year to add to our teams’ championship from this year.”