Double podium for Brendon Leitch in Lamborghini Super Trofeo opening round in France

Kiwi driver Brendon Leitch is delighted to come away from the opening round of the 2023 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe (one-make) series with two podium placings and sitting third overall on the points table. Circuit Paul Ricard, France, hosted the first two races with Leitch twice finishing third in his Dayle ITM backed #86 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2.

“Pretty thrilled with that result,” commented Leitch who is contesting his first full season of GT racing as a solo entry in the Pro Class. “The car ran faultless over the weekend and we have ended up just five-points off the championship lead.”

With 48-cars cars competing in the one-make series, qualifying was always going to be tough with Leitch setting tenth fastest time in Qualifying 1 and seventh in Q2.

“Both qualifying sessions were tough,” said Leitch. “We were unfortunate with track position. Having prepared pretty well, we always seemed to hit traffic on a flying lap.”

The Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe weekend comprises two 50-minute races including a mandatory pitstop with an additional three-seconds added to teams with only one driver.

“Typically for the first half of the race you’re in a train of cars so I pitted early in Saturday’s race and was able to get out into ‘fresh’ air. This worked out really well and I was able to make a couple of passes into third place in the final ten-minutes.

“It didn’t quite work out as well in Sunday’s race and plenty of others also pitted early. However, we had a bit of luck when a couple of cars touched and spun in the closing laps in which several of us had to get around and I ended up third on the podium again.

“I’m super-happy with the double podium. I think that we are still a little off the pace so we are working pretty hard as there is a bit more speed to find to kept up with the front guys.”

Along with Leipert Motorsport teammates Kerong Li and Jean-Francos Brunot, Leitch was also competing in the Paul Ricard 1000, the second round of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe as part of the trio’s preparation for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps race in Belgium at the end of June. The six-hour race got underway at 6pm local time on Saturday evening.

“The focus was preparing for Spa under pressure so the car wasn’t set up to be super-quick. It was more about gaining confidence and experience under race conditions for all drivers and the team.

“It was pretty hectic out on the circuit with 58-cars competing and we made pretty good progress and kept the car straight. It was a pretty cool experience for us all and we finished seventh in our Silver category.”

Leitch now heads to Le Mans for the next two races in the 2023 Le Mans Cup Series later this week.