Photo by: JEP
Barwell Motorsport pairing Rob and Ricky Collard have clinched the 2024 British GT title despite only finishing sixth at the two-hour Brands Hatch season finale.
The Lamborghini Huracan drivers finished behind two non-points scoring cars though - including race winners Alex Buncombe and Joshua Caygill (RJN McLaren) - meaning they took points for fourth.
This left them five points ahead of championship runners-up Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin, who were second on track at the anti-climactic title decider in the sister Barwell.
The Collards have become just the second father-son pairing to claim the GT3 crown after Glynn and Jim Geddie in 2011. Rob Collard is now a two-time series champion, after winning the title with Mitchell in 2020, while 2024 was son Ricky’s first full campaign.
“Just speechless,” said an emotional Collard Jr. “You dream of doing things as a family.”
They arrived at Brands Hatch with a 24.5-point championship lead and such a large margin has never been overturned on the final day, but title deciders often throw up surprises.
That happened on Saturday as the #63 Huracan suffered an engine failure in first practice, meaning the Collards managed just eight laps across the opening two sessions compared to 67 for the sister Huracan.
Collard Sr said it “unbuckled all of our hard work for the season” and put them “massively on the back foot” for qualifying, but the eventual champions still started a respectable sixth while Mitchell/Martin were third.
Both Lamborghinis gained a position on the opening lap. Martin first overtook Morgan Tillbrook (Garage 59 McLaren) down the inside of Paddock Hill to claim second, then moments later Kevin Tse spun at Paddock after contact from Mark Radcliffe (Optimum McLaren) who assumed fourth position.
This put the race under safety car conditions and the green flag returned eight minutes in, where pole sitter Caygill remained ahead of Martin with Collard Sr staying fifth.
That became fourth after 24 minutes when the former touring car star overtook Radcliffe down the inside of Paddock Hill, with Richard Neary (Abba Mercedes) following through moments later.
Collard Sr was on a charge and Paddock Hill was the prime overtaking spot, as 35 minutes into the race he overtook Tillbrook for third at the same spot.
He had soon closed in on the nose-to-tail battle for the lead, with Collard Sr - who did a “blinding stint” according to his son - just a second behind Caygill after 48 minutes.
Just a minute later though, the race was under a full-course yellow flag as Simon Orange crashed his McLaren heavily into the Stirlings tyre barrier.
All cars made their mandatory pitstops under the resulting full course yellow, which benefitted the Collards as they served a 20s compensation penalty for winning the previous race at Donington before the grid was bunched up behind the safety car for a restart.
Collard Jr therefore only dropped to fifth once the race resumed with a little over 40 minutes to go, with Caygill's co-driver Buncombe leading Mitchell, Tillbrook’s co-driver Marcus Clutton up to third and Sam Neary (in for father Richard) now fourth.
Another FCY followed shortly afterwards due to a three-car collision between GT4 drivers at Stirlings, which left a 12-minute sprint to the finish.
The top four all held station as Buncombe stayed ahead of Mitchell to score RJN's first win since the opening round of 2020 at Oulton Park after a stop-start season with multiple co-drivers, while Clutton and Tillbrook completed the podium.
Yet the focus was largely on Collard Jr, who despite ceding fifth position to Radcliffe’s co-driver Tom Gamble into Paddock Hill Bend was still able to clinch the championship.
“A bit stuck for words,” said Collard Sr. “You think about if it goes well this weekend, but we never want to count our chickens before they hatch.
“With what happened yesterday we were under pressure, but we just kept it real, trusted the process, had faith and it came right.”
Elsewhere, Optimum Motorsport McLaren duo Zac Meakin and Jack Brown claimed the GT4 title after winning the season finale.
Source: Autosport