Mitchell on track for podium finish

Former champ Sandy Mitchell is determined Snetterton will be a happy British GT hunting ground again this weekend.

The Forfar racer and team-mate Adam Balon have work to do to ignite their 2022 title challenge.

But Lamborghini factory ace Mitchell, 22, is fired up to get back to the top step of the podium.

The weekend doubleheader presents a brace of opportunities at a Norfolk track the young Scot has happy memories of.

It’s a place where he was winning at more than 150mph before he was even road legal to get behind the wheel.

In 2016 he became British GT’S youngest ever winner at the age of 16 years and 169 days. It’s a championship record which still stands today.

“Snetterton has definitely played an important role in my sportscar career,” said Mitchell.

“It’s where I won my first British GT4 race, and I’ve regularly either won there, or finished on the podium.”

The Angus driver now competes in the top-flight GT3 category in a Lamborghini Huracan prepared by Barwell Motorsport.

In May, Mitchell and Balon won British GT’S Blue Riband event, the three-hour Silverstone 500.

It was another historymaking outing for the former Dundee High School pupil, as the race’s first two-time winner.

After finishing on the podium at Snetterton last season, the duo are eyeing victory in at least one of this weekend’s two onehour races.

“Snetterton marks the mid-point of the British GT season, so it’s crucial Adam and I leave Norfolk with a good haul of points this weekend, and ideally a race win,” he said.

“The last couple of British GT races have each been three hours, so switching back to two 60-minute races in a day demands a completely different set-up for both the drivers and team.

“Snetterton’s a pretty cool circuit. It’s quite long, which is nice, and includes a good mix of demands, with tight, twisty bits and long fast sections. It’s a good combination.

“The last section of the circuit is the most demanding.

“But it’s also somewhere you can definitely make a lot of time up by getting it right. We’ve won sprint races at Snetterton before, and we know how good the guys at Barwell are at setting up the car.

“So we head to Norfolk with a really strong chance of achieving the results we want.”