Collard Sr, a multiple British Touring Car race winner, returns to British GT for the first time since taking the outright GT3 title alongside Sandy Mitchell in 2020.
The 55-year-old most recently claimed second in the GT World Challenge Europe Pro-Am standings alongside Dennis Lind last year.
“Our biggest job will be to harness everything – speed, experience, consistency – and put together a championship challenge, which isn’t easy in British GT," he said.
"I’ve never been the sort of driver to go into a season expecting success to be handed to me. The level British GT is at now is incredible, with some of the best professional and amateur drivers in the world, but I feel we’ve got a really strong package with Barwell."
Collard Jr, meanwhile, will make his full-time debut in British GT after a one-off outing in 2018 and has already enjoyed GT success alongside his father after the pair were part of Barwell’s Pro-Am-winning crew in the 2020 Spa 24 Hours.
“I’m not getting any younger, and it’s an experience,” said the 27-year-old, who will form a Pro-Am pairing with his dad.
“Me and dad won the Spa 24 Hours [Pro-Am class] and the opportunity might never come around again to do British GT with him. The memories we could make doing that together outweigh the glory and fame and fun, if you like, of British Touring Cars.
“It’s something we can cherish. One day I’ll have kids and I can say to them, ‘I raced with your grandad.’ And if we could win the bloody championship, it would be awesome. I’m doing quite a lot of sim stuff to try to readapt to rear-wheel-drive GT3 cars, and I’m excited to do the first test.”
Collard Jr moves across to GT racing full-time having spent the past two seasons in the BTCC with Toyota and a partial campaign with BMW in 2018, during which time he took two podiums.
But ever-increasing budgets in the touring car championship mean Collard Jr has decided to focus his efforts elsewhere for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a shame. When I joined back in 2018, I jumped straight in the car, no testing, no experience, just went out and had podiums and consistent top-10 finishes,” added Collard, who was also a McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist in 2015 and 2016.
“I enjoyed it, whereas the last couple of years with Toyota have been quite difficult for whatever reason.
“Budgets are increasing all the time in touring cars, and it’s just financially impossible. I’d love to have stayed in the championship, but it’s crazy.”
shares
comments
