Brendon Leitch had a bittersweet weekend at Monza at the sixth round of the International GT Open Championship.
In the first race, Leitch and co-driver Tyler Cooke drove their Lamborghini Huracán to a second-place finish in their ProAm class, and seventh overall.
However, the Sunday race was affected by rain and saw Leitch run off track into the unforgiving gravel trap on lap 15.
Before the incident, Leitch had been moving forward working towards another strong result.
Despite the tough weekend, Leitch is still focused on the positives.
“The first race was great for us overall,” said Leitch. “We’re a ProAm team in a series with full Pro driving combinations and at one stage we even led the race outright for a couple of laps before it settled down again during pit stops.
“After that I was able to hold an easy fourth overall and first in class. We were right in it for the class win until the last couple of laps too but I’m pretty stoked with second in class.
“I did what I could to try and get us into a stronger position in the second race but unfortunately a very slippery track and standing water gave us no chance and the car aquaplaned off and there was no way out of the gravel. I was pretty certain we could move forward but that’s racing I’m afraid.
“It’s a very competitive field and it was my first time at Monza so overall I’m pretty pleased with the pace we showed. We demonstrated that we can be competitive with the very best drivers and cars in the field so we just have to move on from one bad day and keep producing good days and good results as we did on Saturday.”
Martin Kodric and Ethan Simioni won the Saturday race while Rinaldi Racing’s Benjamin Hites and Fabrizio Crestani won on Sunday.
Leitch and Cooke will be back racing in the Creventic 24 Hour Series at Sebring November 18-20.