Leitch tastes success on racing return
It has been an emotional period for Kiwi Brendon Leitch, but he marked it with a special and successful return to racing.
Leitch made his Italian GT Championship debut at Imola alongside Tony McIntosh in a Ceccato Racing BMW M4 GT3.
The pair showed plenty of speed in their Chris Amon tribute livery, converting an Am class pole into victory.
Not only that, Leitch and Mcintosh climbed from ninth to second in the outright honours.
They finished 30s behind winners Lin Hodenius and Jean-Luc D’Auira after three hours and 91 laps of racing.
Impressively, the BMW duo were a convincing 27s clear of their nearst Am rivals Milos Pavlovic/Florian Spengler and Aniwat Lommahadthai.
It comes after Leitch missed the recent GT World Challenge Australia round following the tragic passing of his co-driver Tim Miles.
Brendon Leitch driving a Chris Amon-inspired BMW circuit. Image: Supplied
“What a weekend. That was one of the most fun and enjoyable race meetings of my career to date,” said Leitch.
“Going into the weekend, there was a little bit of an unknown with the team and the car. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to get up to speed with the BMW and the crew. It was really cool to meet racing legend Roberto Ravaglia too.
“The car was perfect, and it’s easy to see why this team has had the success it has had in close to a decade of running GT3 cars.
“It was honestly such a pleasure to drive. Imola is such a rewarding circuit when the car can ride the kerbs well and the BMW was faultless.
“I was super impressed by Tony. He had to do a lot of heavy lifting with two-thirds of the driving time, and once again he showed why he’s among the top Bronze drivers in the world right now and a man in demand.”
At this stage the race was just a one-off, but Leitch hopes to return.
“It was good to be back racing in Europe in a GT3 car again. I’ve won in a Lamborghini Huracan, an Audi R8 and now a BMW M4 so it’s good to add that to the CV,” said Leitch.
“Hopefully this kickstarts some more opportunities.”
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