New Zealand endurance racing specialist Brendon Leith was a busy man over the weekend, competing in both the Lamborghini Super Trofeo and GT World Challenge Europe at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
Overall results might not recognise the pace the Kiwi displayed over two full days of racing, Leitch one of the biggest gainers in the GT World Challenge three hour race and on form in the Super Trofeo.
Beginning the weekend in the Super Trofeo in a Lamborghini Super Trofeo EVO 2, Leitch partnered with Gerhard Watzinger in the Pro-AM class for two 50 minute races, one each on Saturday and Sunday.
Qualifying in the Race 1 was put in the hands of Watzinger, the American driver managing to put the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini 24th on the grid of a massive 44 car field.
A massive drive through the race saw the pair work through the pack and finish 10th overall and third in the Pro-AM class, the duo on the podium.
Qualifying for the second race was left to Leitch, a monster of a lap putting the number 70 on the second row in fourth position of the 42 cars that took part.
Come race time, Leitch was forced to the outside line into Turn 1 off the start from a charging third row behind, the Kiwi amazingly hanging on to retain fourth place.
Once the pit window opened, Leitch ran as high as third overall before coming in for his stop with 22 minutes remaining, handing over to Watzinger to bring the race home.
Watzinger was caught out early in his stint with colder tyres and had dropped to ninth overall come a full-course yellow with 15 minutes to go to clear debris off the track.
He managed to return to eighth following the restart, before getting caught out by an AM class battle behind, the leading AM cars putting the American to 12th come race end.
Twelfth overall was enough for Leitch and Watzinger to claim fourth place in the Pro-AM category, concluding a strong weekend for the pair in the series.
Leitch then got behind the wheel of the #27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with Isaac Tutumlu Lopez and Tyler Cooke in the GT World Challenge Silver Cup class.
A disappointing qualifying saw the trio start down in 43rd of the 47 car field, Tutumlu given the reigns come the start of the three hour race on Sunday afternoon.
There was early drama for the team, Tutumlu tapping a McLaren into a spin at Turn 1 after diving into a gap that didn’t exist, a drive through penalty the result.
Cooke was handed the reigns for the middle segment of the race and was running as high as 35th before handing over to Leitch to anchor for the Leipert Motorsport team.
Returning to the track in 44th, the Kiwi displayed strong pace over the final hour in the GT3 to bring home 28th overall for the team, 14th best of the Silver Cup runners.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya endurance race concludes the GT World Challenge Europe campaign for 2022, however Leitch still has one more round of Lamborghini Super Trofeo to run at the end of the month.
Banner Photo: Brendon Leitch (Facebook)
