The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Riding shotgun with a motorsport champ in Lamborghini race car
There’s a raging bull logo on the nose of every Lamborghini. But it’s horsepower – masses of it – which has my undivided attention under azure spring skies at Silverstone circuit.
That, and the brutal force of a full-blown race car being unleashed as former British GT champion Sandy Mitchell buries his racing boot in the footwell and we exit the pitlane of one of the world’s greatest race tracks.
At the same time, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3’s V10 engine lets us know why car fans call the accelerator the “loud pedal”.
It’s an all-out assault on the senses.
But once I’ve, almost, gathered my bearings begins the ride of a lifetime beside the latest ace in a pantheon of flying Scots.
Mitchell is only 24 but has a glory-laden motorsport CV stretching from his British junior karting crown to double class wins at the punishing 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
He was 2020 British GT champion, a series widely regarded as the pinnacle of European GT3 sportscar racing.
His 2024 campaign got off to a flyer and after the opening round at Oulton Park in Cheshire he tops the standings with teammate Alex Martin.
And this weekend Sandy is hunting down a third victory in the championship’s blue riband three-hour Silverstone 500.
He is already the only driver in history to have won it twice.
What makes our Silverstone adventure the hottest of hot laps is that we are actually in his 2020 championship-winning Black Bull Whisky-backed race car.
Barwell Motorsport, the team which he has shared such a successful relationship with since 2018, is the first outfit to ever put a passenger chair inside a full-blown GT3 machine.
So once the full harness is pulled (very) tight it offers the best seat in the house to witness top-level talent at work.
It is a masterclass in car control and the laws of physics as Sandy stands on the brake pedal, rotates the car into the corner and launches us with headspinning ferocity into the next section of Silverstone.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to put people in the passenger seat of an actual race car,” he says.
“A track day or a passenger lap in a fast road car doesn’t come close to what an actual GT3 car is really like.”
Fellow British Racing Drivers’ Club members sharing the track in some of the fastest road-going machinery there is would no doubt concur as we pass them on Silverstone’s Wellington Straight as if they are standing still.
Hardly surprising when you are above the UK speed limit in around three seconds in a car that can stretch its legs to 200mph.
Three laps later I can just about summon the composure to extricate myself out of the tight cabin unaided.
What is more of a struggle is getting to grips with how top-flight GT3 drivers deliver beyond that level for stints of up to three hours at a time in events like the Le Mans 24 Hours Mitchell is targeting.
Often in the pitch black, pouring rain and with maybe 50 rivals trying to beat you up in pursuit of the chequered flag.
Sandy already holds the GT3 qualifying lap record at the home of the British Grand Prix.
And he is ready to give the record books his best shot again this weekend in the Lamborghini Huracan Evo2.
“We know we’re competitive,” he says.
“But we also know with 43 cars and crews lining up, this is the most competitive grid of the year because this is the race everyone wants to win. It’ll be tough.
“Strategy plays a big part in the outcome.
“It’s about anticipating and then reacting to incidents, and in the Barwell crew we have many, many years of experience.
“Get the calls right and if we manage to stay out of trouble we know we have the pace to be fighting at the sharp end of the race.”
British GT’s Silverstone 500 takes place tomorrow and is live on YouTube.