Three Championships, One Weekend, One Car
In mid-May 2019, Lamborghini customer teams running the Huracán GT3 EVO collected victories and podiums across three separate European GT championships in the span of a single race weekend. Barwell Motorsport took both races at the British GT Championship‘s Snetterton round. Imperiale Racing won the Italian GT Endurance series opener at Misano by over thirty seconds. Orange1 by Grasser Racing Team posted runner-up finishes in both ADAC GT Masters races at Most in the Czech Republic.
A single win can reflect a lucky safety car or a well-timed pit stop. Simultaneous success across Norfolk, the Adriatic coast, and Bohemia, against grids stacked with Audi R8s, Aston Martins, Bentleys, BMWs, and Mercedes-AMGs, tells a different story altogether. It points to a car and a support infrastructure that work everywhere, for every team, regardless of conditions. And it reveals why the Huracán GT3 EVO became the machine that turned Lamborghini from a GT3 contender into a genuine force.
Barwell’s Snetterton Masterclass
Phil Keen and Adam Balon, driving Barwell Motorsport’s #79 Huracán GT3 EVO, won both British GT races at Snetterton in Norfolk, and the way they did it illustrated two distinct strengths of the car.
The first victory came through a combination of opportunism and outright pace. Starting from the inside of row two, Balon ran sixth early before the sister #69 Barwell car, driven by Sam De Haan, was spun by a Century Motorsport BMW at Turn 2. After the mandatory driver swap, Keen picked off an Aston Martin for third, inherited second when a Bentley lost time in the pits, then took the lead when the front-running BMW of Jack Mitchell slowed suddenly at Wilson hairpin. From that point, the Huracán GT3 EVO’s pace was unambiguous. Lamborghini says Keen extended his advantage to beat Ryan Ratcliffe and Rob Bell to the flag by 13.551 seconds. In a one-hour British GT race, a margin that large means the car behind was losing roughly half a second per lap over the closing stint. The competition simply could not match the Lamborghini’s combination of mechanical grip and tire management.
Race 2 required a different kind of performance. Keen and Balon carried a 10-second success penalty from their earlier podiums at Oulton Park, yet still won. Keen shadowed pole-sitter Nicki Thiim’s Aston Martin through the opening stint, building a gap over the rest of the field. After the driver swap, Balon closed on the Aston Martin, now piloted by Mark Farmer, and executed a late overtake at Nelson corner to seal a Barwell one-two, with Jonny Cocker and De Haan finishing right behind in the #69. Winning once with a penalty is difficult. Winning and leading your teammate home for a formation finish speaks to a car that gives its drivers genuine confidence.
Misano and Most: Proof Beyond Britain
What made this weekend so telling was that the Huracán GT3 EVO’s success was not confined to one series or one set of conditions. At Misano, Imperiale Racing’s crew of Vito Postiglione, Jeroen Mul, and Alex Frassineti started from the third row and took an early lead when Postiglione exploited wet conditions at the start. Endurance racing in the rain is where fragile cars and uncertain setups get exposed, and the Huracán GT3 EVO looked composed throughout. Lamborghini says the team finished 33.323 seconds clear of second place after 96 laps, a dominant margin in a three-hour endurance format that typically rewards consistency over raw speed.
At the Most circuit in the Czech Republic, Orange1 by Grasser Racing Team collected second-place finishes in both ADAC GT Masters races. Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart took the runner-up spot in Race 1, while Franck Perera and Rolf Ineichen matched that result in Race 2. The ADAC GT Masters grid is one of the most competitive in European GT racing, populated heavily by factory-supported Audi and Porsche entries. Finishing on the podium in both races with different driver pairings underlined the car’s adaptability and the depth of Grasser’s engineering preparation. Taken together with Barwell’s double and Imperiale’s dominant endurance win, the weekend painted a picture of a GT3 platform that thrived across every format and climate it encountered.
Why Customer Racing Wins Matter More Than Factory Trophies
A factory team winning races proves that a manufacturer can build a fast car when it controls every variable. Customer teams winning races proves something harder: that the car works when handed to independent operations with smaller budgets, different engineers, and varying levels of driver talent. Lamborghini’s GT3 program, run through Squadra Corse, depends entirely on this model. Barwell, Imperiale, and Grasser buy the cars, run them, and rely on Squadra Corse for technical support and development. When all three win or podium on the same weekend, it validates the entire ecosystem.
For prospective customer teams evaluating which GT3 car to invest in, this kind of weekend is the strongest possible sales pitch. One source from 2018 reported the Huracán GT3 EVO at $430,000, a significant outlay before factoring in a season’s worth of tires, fuel, spares, and crew costs. The car was also available as an upgrade kit for existing Huracán GT3 chassis, which lowered the barrier for teams already running the original platform. That upgrade path was a shrewd move by Squadra Corse, keeping loyal customers competitive without forcing them to buy an entirely new car, and the results at Snetterton, Misano, and Most proved the investment was paying off.
From 2019 to the Temerario: A Legacy Still Unfolding
The Huracán GT3 EVO’s 2019 results were not an isolated peak. Lamborghini says the car went on to sweep IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver and team titles in 2020 with Paul Miller Racing, and Barwell claimed Lamborghini’s first British GT championship that same year. A class victory at the 24 Hours of Spa followed. The EVO specification proved durable enough that an updated EVO2 variant, compliant with 2022 FIA technical regulations, continued racing competitively for years afterward, and the British GT Championship still features the Huracán GT3 EVO2 on its grid.
The original Huracán GT3 debuted for the 2015 season, according to one report, which means the platform accumulated nearly a decade of competitive development before Lamborghini confirmed its successor. Car and Driver reported that the Temerario GT3 will replace the Huracán GT3 EVO2 as Lamborghini’s factory-backed GT3 effort, marking the first race car entirely designed and developed at Sant’Agata Bolognese. That car will use a modified version of the road car’s twin-turbocharged V8, a fundamental shift from the naturally aspirated V10 that defined the Huracán’s racing character.
For teams and drivers who built their programs around the Huracán’s characteristics, this transition means adapting to an entirely new powerband, different weight distribution, and the complexities of turbo management in wheel-to-wheel racing. Whether the Temerario GT3 can replicate the kind of weekend Lamborghini enjoyed in May 2019, with customer teams winning across multiple championships simultaneously, will be the real test of Squadra Corse’s next chapter. The Huracán GT3 EVO set a standard that made Lamborghini a serious force in GT3 racing. The question now is whether the successor can match that breadth of success from its very first season.
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