Mitchell scuppered by electrical gremlin 22 | 04 | 2018
SCOT SANDY MITCHELL’S aim of marking his debut in the Blancpain GT Championship with a podium in the season-opener at Monza was scuppered by an electrical gremlin. (Related: Sandy Mitchell — Monza Preview Interview)
And frustratingly, the 18-year-old from Forfar, fastest of the 66-car field on the opening day of testing at the iconic Italian Grand Prix circuit, didn’t even get to drive his Black Bull Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the race.
“Of course it’s disappointing, but it’s disappointing for the whole team; not just me,” Mitchell, partnered in the Barwell Motorsport-prepared car by 23-year-old Italian Michele Beretta and 20-year-old Croatian Martin Kodric, explained afterwards.
“The car hasn’t missed a beat through pre-season testing, and was brilliant on Friday at Monza.
“But on race day the car developed an electrical glitch in the wiring loom just a few laps into the three-hour race, and despite the team’s best efforts they weren’t able to get us back on track.”
The trio had qualified their car fourth in the highly competitive Blancpain Silver Cup Junior Pro Class, and 24th overall. Beretta started the race and after a few laps had eased himself comfortably into the top 20, but a few minutes later he radioed the team to report a drop in the car’s power.
Forced to pit, the crew quickly sought to identify the source of the problem, but though they traced the fault to the wiring loom the car could not be repaired in time to rejoin the race.
“It’s the nature of motorsport,” Mitchell, always remaining upbeat and who had been scheduled to take the middle stint of the race, said. “Sometimes these things just happen, no matter how well-prepared the car is.
“We showed on Friday and in qualifying that the Black Bull Lamborghini has the pace to fight at the front of the field, and we were confident of scoring at least a podium in the Silver Cup.
“Everybody in the team is gutted we weren’t able to demonstrate our pace through the whole race. But we’ll come back stronger for the next round, which is our home race at Silverstone next month.”
Mitchell, a member of the prestigious British Racing Drivers’ Club Rising Star scheme, is backed by a number of local companies, including Thorntons, Close Brothers, Stirfresh, InverTay Homes, Provisio Funding and Celurca Investments. In addition, companies on the world stage, including Tunnock’s, Duerr’s, Christie Digital and Stampede Global, are backing the talented young Scot.
Related: Mitchell aims to build Blancpain success
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Jim McGill
Photographs copyright of Jakob Ebrey