Rob Collard was left “absolutely devastated” after his spin at the 2026 British GT Brands Hatch finale cost him and co-driver Hugo Cook the title.
The Barwell Lamborghini pair were one of five contenders, but held the favourites tag with a 15.5-point gap to second-placed Alex Martin/Jarrod Waberski in the sister Huracan.
Neither duo ultimately won the overall championship though, as it instead went to Orange Racing McLaren’s Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton who arrived in Kent with a 21.5-point deficit.
They became champions with victory on Sunday but initially, a win alone wasn’t enough as Collard/Cook were on course to claim the podium they needed to clinch the title.
But then 54 minutes into the two-hour race, when Collard was leading after overtaking 2 Seas Mercedes polesitter Kevin Tse on lap one, he spun off at Sheene Curve and dropped to the back.
In an instant it ended all title hopes and with Martin/Waberski finishing the race in fourth, Orange/Clutton snatched their maiden crown despite not leading the standings until that point.
Collard, who was set to become a three-time champion, said: “I’m absolutely devastated. I’m truly gutted for Hugo being my team-mate, for the team and all the sponsors, I just have to take it on the chin.
“At the moment, we don’t know if there’s an issue with the car because we’ve lost all our ABS since going off and I can’t explain why the car just locked its rears going into Sheene corner.
“So yeah, just gutted, really! I genuinely thought we were going to do it today. When we got round the outside of Tse at Turn 1, and I started building the gap, I thought we’ve got a good chance of this.”
Collard/Cook had been the standout pairing of 2026 thanks to a top-four finish at every race bar the Silverstone opener, where their engine blew while running second late on.
So Cook is still looking back on the campaign with pride, particularly when it was only the 23-year-old’s second season running at the front after joining Collard at Barwell in 2025.
“Mistakes happen and it’s what it is,” said the three-time race winner. “Obviously it’s gutting, we worked really hard this year and every race after the DNF, our lowest position was fourth.
Brands Hatch 2026 finale
Photo by: JEP
“So we did a good job as a team and as much as it’s gutting, it is what it is. You have these years in racing where stuff doesn’t quite fall your way, so it just wasn’t our year – that’s it.”
Barwell still managed to seal its eighth GT3 teams’ title, while Collard took Masters – aimed at Amateur drivers – honours with Martin/Waberski clinching the Silver-Am championship.
Waberski, 21, has particularly impressed in his rookie campaign and also won the new-for-2026 SRO GT Academy prize, meaning he has a fully-funded seat at the 2027 Spa 24 Hours.
“After Silverstone, when we had that fire, which was no fault of our own, we thought the #63 car would be out of it,” said Barwell team boss Mark Lemmer.
“So to fight their way back into contention was brilliant, testament to the whole team, and Rob is a driver that helped put us in that position with Hugo, and just one tiny little thing has caught him out.
“The team’s done a brilliant job. I’m frustrated but I’m super happy for Jarrod and Alex winning the Silver-Am, we’ve put Jarrod in a position to win the Academy which is fantastic, we won the teams again, we won the Silver-Am and Rob’s won the Masters.
“Ultimately, we didn’t expect earlier in the year to be fighting for the overall championship, so that would have been a bonus.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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