The consistency that brought Barwell back-to-back British GT glory

Eight winners from nine races in the 2021 British GT Championship would suggest the season was a wide-open affair. Five crews held a mathematical chance of the title heading into the final round at Donington Park, as organiser SRO was totally vindicated in returning the series to its traditional Pro-Am format.

But that Barwell Motorsport pair Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind prevailed after a tense two hours, during which Machitski claimed to have aged 10 years, should come as no surprise when considering their peerless consistency. Aside from being the blameless victims in a first corner tangle in the first Donington race – Machitski unable to avoid Michael Igoe’s WPI Motorsport Lamborghini, which had been turned around by Nick Jones – they were never outside the top five.

Podiums came in five of the nine races, taking maximum scores for victory at Spa (the year’s standout drive, winning by 49 seconds) and for second at Oulton (behind the guesting RAM Mercedes of Kevin Tse and Tom Onslow-Cole). The pressure-cooker Donington finale was the only meeting where they weren’t truly in the hunt. Even there, they finished fourth. Fifth in the second race at Snetterton, where Lind felt the team had gone the wrong way on tyre pressures in the wet, was their lowest finish all year.

Machitski, the 2006 GT3 champion, was returning to the British scene after several years of racing for Am Cup and Pro-Am glory in GT World Challenge Europe fields packed with all-Pro line-ups – and relished fighting for outright honours again.

There was no doubting his sincerity when he said, after wrapping up the 2021 British GT title, that it “feels far more important” than any of his European accomplishments, or indeed his 2006 crown – back when GT2s were still top dog. His experiences have taught him to box clever and furthered his understanding of how to win championships, which he applied to excellent effect (lap one spin at Silverstone aside).

“I know it’s not speed that does it,” he says. “It doesn’t mean we don’t have the speed, we do, we showed that in every free practice. Unfortunately, I couldn’t show it in qualifying when it mattered a few times, apart from Spa!”

Machitski took his second British GT title, 15 years after his first in 2006

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Machitski scoffs at the suggestion that he’s driving the best he ever has.

“No, absolutely not!” he says. “I’ve done a lot of laps last year and when I won the European [Endurance Am Cup division in 2018-19]. When you’re driving for a title, it’s always in the back of your head that you have to keep it on-track. The best I drive is when I don’t care about points. That’s why in practice I’m usually one of the quickest Ams. When it comes to the race, I know that it’s not the outright pace that wins the championship, so I always bring it a notch back.”

Together with the perma-charging Lind, who claimed a season-high six fastest laps, they made a formidable pairing. This was an important season for the Dane after losing his Lamborghini factory status last year, and he immediately served warning of what to expect by passing Yelmer Buurman for third on the way to setting fastest lap at Brands Hatch.

"I feel like I’ve made much more progress this year than I did last year, so I feel like I’ve gone forward. My pace at the circuits I’ve always slightly struggled at has been better, so I’m looking forward to next season" Adam Balon

Perhaps his highlight of the season, Spa domination aside, was stealing third from Jonny Adam on the final lap of Snetterton race one (earning points for second as one-off TF Sport Aston Martin pair Ahmad Al Harthy and Charlie Eastwood took a dominant win), having emerged from the pits in eighth.

His only blemishes were being mugged for second on the final lap at Silverstone by team-mate Sandy Mitchell – which cost a maximum score on one of three occasions this year that a crew ineligible for points took victory – and overshooting Turn 1 at the Snetterton race-two restart, losing two positions.

“Me and Leo get on so well and we drive the car quite similarly – we like the car to do the same things and that’s been super-helpful,” he says. “I’ve hung out with Leo for most of the year and every time we’ve gone to a race track, I’ve visited his apartment beforehand and just hung out, been good friends. I think it’s brought a very calm environment.”

Machitski adds: “Every time I’ve driven for this team, it’s a great atmosphere, everyone knows exactly what they’re doing. This is a team sport. It’s not me and Dennis winning, it’s the team.”

Machitski and Lind's dominant drive to victory at Spa was the year's standout drive

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Barwell wrapped up the teams’ title too, and was once again the only outfit with two cars in the fight heading to the finale. Mitchell – now a fully fledged Pro after winning the 2020 crown as a Silver pairing with Rob Collard – and Adam Balon’s title hopes were heavily dented at Brands when James Cottingham’s misjudged lunge on Balon left both stuck in the Paddock Hill Bend gravel.

After out-duelling Lind for the Silverstone ‘win’, behind Martin Kodric and Hunter Abbott’s guesting 2 Seas Mercedes, Balon’s self-induced trip into the gravel at Stavelot cost a potential podium at Spa, and they were fortunate even to finish Snetterton race one with a brake disc issue – but fifth was hardly ideal. Second places at Snetterton and Oulton kept them in the hunt, but they missed further podiums when carrying success penalties – a feat managed by Machitski and Lind twice (at Silverstone and Snetterton). Balon enjoyed working with Mitchell after Phil Keen’s switch to WPI, and has his sights firmly set on the title next year.

“I feel like I’ve made much more progress this year than I did last year,” he says, “so I feel like I’ve gone forward. My pace at the circuits I’ve always slightly struggled at has been better, so I’m looking forward to next season.”

Barwell’s closest challenge came from RAM Mercedes pairing Ian Loggie and Buurman, who again took the Pro-Am title but missed out on the outright honours they craved. A model of consistency, the duo took an overdue victory in the wet in the second Snetterton bout, but Loggie believes they were let down by misfortune at Spa and Snetterton race one. The points loss from these two races – conservatively placed at 10 points – would have been enough to usurp Barwell’s champs.

At the former, Loggie believed he’d judged the lights perfectly – “I thought, ‘I’m going to be first off the first corner here’,” he recalls – but Richard Neary had made an even better one from the back of the grid. As Loggie moved left to jink around poleman Machitski, Donington victor Neary thundered into the RAM car – ending his own race and causing Loggie to lose eight laps in the pits to repairs.

They still scored points for sixth given the shortfall in entries that weekend, but the delays suffered by Beechdean’s Andrew Howard (who pitted one lap before the window opened and had to come in again) and Balon means a bare minimum of fourth place was achievable with a problem-free run. At Snetterton, Buurman was dropped from a net sixth to eighth by a puncture – at a loss of four points.

There was also a drivethrough penalty for a pitlane violation in the second race at Oulton Park, where they still finished third but likely would have finished ahead of Balon – who didn’t lose a place with his final lap spin.

Loggie and Buurman won at Snetterton after the latter had outduelled Lind at the start

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

“Spa and the puncture at Snett did it for us,” says Loggie. “I don’t think as a team or as drivers we did anything wrong. It was just a couple of bits of bad luck.”

The Evo Mercedes was slightly more peaky on the new-for-2021 construction of Pirelli rubber compared to the original-spec car run by the Nearys. Not going testing before the first race also meant it was playing catch-up at the start of the year, while new engineer Matt Harvey came in cold at Silverstone as DTM clashes counted out Alex Zoechling. By season’s end, it was a threat everywhere, but just came up short in battle with Marcus Clutton’s Enduro McLaren for what became the Donington II win.

Igoe reckoned afterwards that he had the pace to overcome their 20s success penalty at Donington, but the problem was he was already three laps down after two early spins

WPI’s Igoe and Keen were the year’s only repeat winners. But after dominating the Brands Hatch opener, their season went off the boil. A mysterious chassis issue meant they lacked pace at Silverstone, finishing 11th, and they never got a chance to rebound from second on the grid at Donington thanks to the contact from Jones.

After finishing second at Spa, a penalty for contact with Kelvin Fletcher’s Bentley at Snetterton – a miffed Igoe felt he’d slowed sufficiently to avoid gaining an advantage – resulted in an unrepresentative seventh, and an off at Cascades avoiding the spun Morgan Tillbrook in the Oulton Park opener cost a likely maximum score when running ahead of Neary (who was later disqualified) and eventual beneficiary Machitski. Victory in Oulton’s second race – from eighth on the grid – gave them hope, perpetuated by snaring Donington pole.

Igoe reckoned afterwards that he had the pace to overcome their 20s success penalty, but the problem was he was already three laps down after two early spins. A tale of what could have been, but Igoe will certainly be a factor again next year. 

Beechdean reunited 2015 champions Howard and Jonny Adam, who put together a strong title challenge until it all unravelled with Howard’s qualifying off at Oulton. From 6.5 points behind after Snetterton, he duly needed a miracle at Donington that never arrived. Adam’s hopes of a fifth title had already evaporated after a positive COVID-19 test forced him to miss Spa.

Oulton qualifying crash forced Howard into a backup chassis and effectively ended his title chances

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

GT4: Ginetta rivals-turned team-mates dominate for Century

That GT4 was decided a round early was entirely fitting of the dominance displayed by Century Motorsport BMW’s Will Burns and Gus Burton. The champion and runner-up in the 2020 Ginetta GT4 Supercup lived up to their billing as pre-season favourites by leading every race and winning three times. Without British GT’s success penalties (and being punished for a too-short stop in the second Snetterton contest), that tally could have been more.

Burns was initially committed to Assetto Motorsport’s new Ginetta G56 but, when a team-mate for him couldn’t be found, Century boss Nathan Freke got his man. In its fourth year of running the BMW M4 GT4s, the 2018 title-winning squad had no excuses with two quick drivers and a decent testing programme that Freke says contributed to the car being “rounded off better this year”.

“When that came off, I knew we were going to be strong,” says Freke. But even he couldn’t have anticipated the 0.897-second pole margin at Brands Hatch. Only a puncture denied Pro-Am Assetto pair Charlie Robertson and Mark Sansom victory, but its rise was helped massively by frequent safety cars in the first stint that prevented Burns building a gap to negate the Silver crew’s longer stop.

Burns was an unstoppable force at race starts. At Brands and Spa, he put GT3s between him and his nearest challenger. When he was not at the front of the grid, he usually found his way there within a few laps, but without roughing up others. At the first Donington Park visit, where others lost their heads, he was clean and decisive, yielding an unexpected win after a difficult qualifying. Burton, usually quicker in qualifying, had a tougher time against the Pros but showed maturity beyond his 18 years. He has a bright future.

“Will’s been around for ages and he knows what it takes to win a championship, and Gus is old before his years,” says Freke. “Their pace is immense but, above that, the level-headedness to read situations and see issues in front of them is the biggest attribute I see to winning this championship. They had consistency in droves and the car has been reliable. Other than the Snetterton penalty, it’s been a perfect year.”

Despite switching from Pro-Am to the Silver class mid-season, its sister crew of Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke and Chris Salkeld looked set for second in the standings for much of the year. But a poor end of the season marred by contact with Spa winner Jack Brown at Oulton Park and a failed tyre gamble at Donington dropped them back, as a late burst of form took Academy Motorsport’s Ford Mustang to finish runner-up.

Burns and Burton were peerless in the Brands Hatch opener and delivered on their pre-season favourites tag

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Will Moore and Matt Cowley won twice, the latter driving superbly at the Donington finale to beat the perennially unlucky Alain Valente and Michael Benyahia (Team Rocket RJN McLaren), who were also denied victory in the Snetterton opener by a puncture.

That win instead went to Snetterton specialist Jordan Collard and James Kell, who missed Spa after the latter's test shunt. They ended up third in the points when a fuel problem struck in the closing stages of the Donington finale - after a certain podium in the first Donington race went begging due to a series of electrical glitches resulting from exhaust damage. A potential victory at Oulton Park was also lost when Kell was hit late on by Benyahia, allowing Burns and Burton to capitalise.

"It’s been a fantastic season, I’ve smiled from the minute I’ve turned up at a race weekend to the minute I’ve left" Matt Topham

Pro-Am honours were taken by the Newbridge Aston Martin that missed the opening round. With TF Sport not defending its title, Richard Tovey’s team upheld Aston honour well, newcomer Matt Topham shining by outqualifying the Silvers at Oulton (a feat made all the more special by the fact he’d never had a pole in four years of Caterham racing). He won on debut alongside marque stalwart Darren Turner at Silverstone - “It still makes me tingle now talking about it,” he says - and again claimed class honours at Spa (only denied outright GT4 victory by a track-limits penalty).

“It has been learning, but probably a bit quicker than I expected!” says Topham. “As an Am it’s hard to race against the Silver drivers, because you know that they’re proven and they’re probably faster, but it’s helped me improve immensely, watching what they can do.

“It’s been a fantastic season, I’ve smiled from the minute I’ve turned up at a race weekend to the minute I’ve left. I wanted to come in this season and win the overall title. I had my eyes set on it. Obviously it would be a big challenge and having to come in a race late I knew would be an uphill battle, but I always wanted to win it outright so that’s the challenge for next year.”

However, the Pro-Am title would have gone to Jamie Stanley and Nick Halstead (Fox Motorsport McLaren) if Gordon-Colebrooke/Salkeld had been reclassified before their Donington I maximum score.

Topham impressed in his first year, winning on debut at Silverstone with Turner on his way to the Pro-Am title

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Top 5 GT3 drivers

5. Marcus Clutton

Combined the stresses of running a new team with coaching a championship newcomer to the point of winning the final race. Made a clumsy move on Adam at Silverstone that deterred him going for it at Donington I, but took Donington II by the scruff of the neck with charging stint.

4. Leo Machitski

Oulton practice shunt and Donington II qualifying off hampered his grid positions, but Machitski saved his best for the races and was a factor everywhere. Stood firm under huge pressure in tense finale when it would have been easy to overstep the mark. Disappeared into the distance in standout drive at Spa.

3. Ian Loggie

Not testing pre-season cost Loggie and Buurman, as they had to learn the new Pirelli construction at race weekends. Despite that, Loggie was the most consistent Am with his mistake-free approach. The crew’s big points losses were beyond his control. Would have been a worthy champ.

2. Sandy Mitchell

Passed Lind three times this year – at Silverstone for a de facto win, and at Snetterton and Oulton in poor weather. Imbued with the confidence of Lambo works status, it rubbed off on Balon and, without being punted off at Brands, would have been a bigger factor in the title fight.

1. Dennis Lind

In a vital season for his career, showed Lamborghini why it should waste no time in re-signing him. Took fastest lap at every track where he took part in a race, but didn’t hamper Machitski in doing so. Laid to rest memories of a difficult 2020 in convincing fashion.

Lind (right, with team boss Mark Lemmer) clicked well with Barwell and was the year's fastest lap king

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Top 5 GT4 drivers

5. Matt Topham

The ex-Caterham racer struggled somewhat at Snetterton, and got a bit roughed up at Donington I and Spa, but won brilliantly on his debut and beat all the Silvers in his Oulton qualifying session. Targeting the outright title in 2022, and will only get better after hugely impressive first year.

4. Jordan Collard

Carried his team to third despite two non-scores (team-mate James Kell causing chassis damage in testing at Spa and running out of fuel at Donington II). Only win at Snetterton was partly down to luck, as a puncture cost team-mates Valente/Benyahia while leading, but usually the strongest McLaren driver.

3. Darren Turner

It was a shame that his move-of-the-season contender on Jack Brown around the outside of Pouhon didn’t lead to victory due to track-limits breaches, but the veteran again proved Aston’s Mr Dependable by bringing out the best in newcomer Topham and always being at the sharp end in qualifying.

2. Will Burns

Had the most eye-catching moments of the year and excelled on his return to the series, enhancing his credentials hugely. In only his second season driving something other than a Ginetta in the past decade, he showed superb racecraft and was particularly electric at starts.

1. Gus Burton

Narrowly gets the edge over Burns given his superior qualifying pace, lack of experience and stiffer competition in his stints, but nothing in it for race pace. Stunning pass on Gordon-Colebrooke at Brands aside, best moment came in defence against Scott McKenna’s Toyota on old rubber at Snetterton. Took everything in his stride.

Burton narrowly edged Burns to top spot, but there was little to choose between the title-winning pair all year long

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography