Greystone GT rounded off their maiden season of GT Cup competition with a superb second-place finish at the final race of the year at Snetterton on Sunday.
Drivers Iain Campbell and Oli Webb came home in the runner-up spot in the series’ most hotly-contested class - GTH - in their McLaren 570S GT4 at the Norfolk circuit after a determined effort by the Silverstone-based team.
It was the fourth podium finish of the season for the pair, but was achieved in utterly remarkable circumstances as Iain had been prevented from taking part in Saturday’s track action on doctors’ orders due to an ear infection that left him struggling to walk.
After spending the rest of the day recovering, the Sandhurst racer was passed fit to race on Sunday and sensationally finished the Sprint Race fifth to equal the best solo finish of his career.
He then climbed to third by the end of his stint in the Pitstop Race and handed over to his professional co-driver Oli; the Knutsford racer doing the rest with a superb ‘around the outside’ move to seal second with just over 20 of the 50 minutes to go.
Mark Hopton enjoyed an excellent Saturday as he scored his best Sprint finish to date with seventh in a damp opener in which grip levels were constantly changing.
He then equalled his highest overall finish with fourth in the Pitstop Race with pro co-driver Adam Carroll; the 'race' taking place in horrendous conditions, turning it largely into a procession behind the safety car before being stopped for good just before three-quarters distance.
The Repton racer and his Northern Irish team-mate would not get the chance to race on Sunday after a qualifying incident - from which Mark escaped unhurt - left his McLaren 570S GT4 too badly damaged to be repaired on site.
Like Mark, Harrogate’s Rich Mason found himself extremely at home in the damp conditions on Saturday morning, scoring his best-ever qualifying result in 10th and then finishing a brilliant sixth in the Sprint - also his highest solo finish to date.
He and pro co-driver Jon Lancaster were fifth in the Pitstop Race; both feeling that they could have been higher up the order with more green-flag running. Eighth followed in each of Sunday’s two dry races.
Those results helped the pair finish 10th in the Drivers’ Championship; two places behind Iain and Oli and two ahead of Mark and Adam; the latter two crews missing out on the 20 bonus points on offer to any drivers competing in each of the series’ final eight races.
For a second straight event the Greystone GT line-up was bolstered by a McLaren 720S GT3 in the GT3 category for Andrey Borodin and Ed Pead.
Andrey was in the thick of the action in the opening Sprint Race, qualifying and finishing eighth and repeating the result with Ed in the monsoon-like Pitstop encounter.
Visibly growing in confidence on a dry track on Sunday, Andrey again finished eighth in the Sprint and then combined with Londoner Ed to finish seventh in the Pitstop race; the Moscow racer making a number of clinical passing moves.
Greystone GT’s maiden season in racing ends with a first GT Cup win courtesy of Rich and Jon at Silverstone, seven podiums in the championship and a victory in the Pure McLaren GT Series on the team’s international debut at Portimao last month.
Iain Campbell (#23 McLaren 570S GT4) said: “When I woke up on Sunday morning, I had no idea if I’d even be cleared to race, so to finish the weekend by finishing second, after a drive I was really pleased with, is just fantastic. I came down with an ear infection on Saturday that really affected my balance, so I was told I couldn’t race and instead got some treatment for motion sickness and watched the races in a dark room on YouTube. When I saw the weather, I was pretty glad I wasn’t in them actually! Sunday was brilliant though. I got strong starts in both races, had good speed, gave the car to Oli in third place in the Pitstop Race and he did the rest. The target for my first year was to get one podium, so we’ve over-achieved. From being at the back in April to regularly in the top five now has really pleased me, so a huge thanks to Oli and Greystone GT for helping me all the way.”
Oli Webb (#23 McLaren 570S GT4) said: “It’s great to finish the season on a high by equalling our best finish of the year. Iain did an outstanding job to qualify where he did after coming ‘back from the dead’ 24 hours earlier, and then to get a top-five in the Sprint Race too. By the end of the Sprint he was bang-on the pace that I’d expected him to be at on a normal weekend; just an amazing recovery. The team did a great job in the pits and I was pretty pleased with my move for second - around the outside at Coram - and to close a 22-second gap to the leader into just 11s by the finish. I’ve really enjoyed my first year racing with Iain and with Greystone GT. They’re an ultra-professional team, but it’s still great fun and there’s a strong camaraderie between the drivers. Plus racing in a UK series again for the first time in a decade has been great too.”
Mark Hopton (#77 McLaren 570S GT4), said: “I came into the weekend feeling really positive and generally a lot more relaxed behind the wheel than earlier in the season. It was great to get my best Sprint Race finish in the wet on Saturday and then to finish fourth for the second Pitstop Race in a row in conditions that were actually easier to drive in than earlier on because there was a consistent level of grip rather than a greasy track with grip levels changing all the time. I think we could have had a podium on Sunday, but I just made a small mistake in qualifying by not heating my tyres up sufficiently. I went a little wide, spun across the track and had a big impact with the barrier. I was ok, but the car was too badly-damaged to race. We’ve had an extraordinary amount of bad luck this year, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Greystone GT team.”
Adam Carroll (#77 McLaren 570S GT4) said: “I think a podium was on the cards on Saturday if we’d been allowed to race the final 15 minutes of the Pitstop Race. The conditions were no worse than earlier on and I know that with the first four cars nose-to-tail, I could have had a good go for the top three or even the win. But safety has to come first and I can fully understand why the race was red-flagged. I’d love to have helped Mark get his first podium, but whatever the results, his progress has been fantastic. It’s very easy to forget that a year ago he’d never done a race, and here he is now regularly qualifying mid-pack in what’s the highest-quality and biggest GTH grid the GT Cup’s ever had. I hope we can continue together with Greystone GT next year and really build on what’s been a positive opening season.”
Rich Mason (#22 McLaren 720S GT4) said: “It’s been a fantastic end to a fantastic season. Snetterton’s probably the circuit I know the least on the GT Cup calendar and I missed the event here in the Summer, but it’s a real challenge and a track I’m starting to like a lot. The Saturday results were great; my best Sprint qualifying and race result yet. I had a great battle with Mark [Hopton] on-track too in the wet conditions, which was a lot of fun and very respectful too. My wet pace was stronger than my dry speed, maybe because a lot of my test days have been wet, and because Jon’s given me some great tips on how to drive those conditions. I’ve enjoyed the year so much with a fantastic group of people at Greystone GT and I want to come back for more next year.”
Jon Lancaster (#22 McLaren 570S GT4) said: “Rich has been a bit of a ‘rainmeister’ this weekend; he just has so much confidence in those conditions and it paid off for him with his best Sprint Race result and then fifth in the Pitstop Race, which I think we could have improved on if we’d been allowed to race to the finish - though I can totally understand why the officials brought out the red flags. Overall we’ve made huge progress in all areas, enjoyed getting to know each other and taken Greystone GT’s first race win at Silverstone - which is well beyond what Rich had hoped for. Now we have the basics of driving covered, we can start to move on to developing some of the more specific elements of Rich’s driving so that we can hopefully do even better next year.”
Ed Pead (#24 McLaren 720S GT4) said: “It’s been a real privilege to race a car like the McLaren 720S GT3 and to be there alongside Andrey, who I coached on his very first track day. There were more high-quality cars in GT3 this weekend than at Donington so matching the podiums we got there was always going to be a bit tougher, but Andrey did really well. The grip levels on Saturday were so inconsistent in the Sprint Race, and in the Pitstop Race you just couldn’t see anything so it’s no real surprise it was red-flagged. You could see how much Andrey’s confidence grew once he settled into a rhythm on the dry track on Sunday, he put a good move on the Can-Am McLaren and did his second-best ever lap of Snetterton in that race on a busy track. I hope we can come back and do more next year.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s been a fantastic first season in the GT Cup and great to see Iain and Oli take another podium. That drive to second place with Oli was truly heroic given the state he was in on Saturday. To see Mark and Rich get career-best solo results and to watch Andrey visibly gaining confidence on-track was also very good. We’ve had five racing rookies in our line-up this year, only two of whom did all the rounds, so to be able to get to the end of the season with three of them finishing on the podium in a series as tough as the GT Cup - which has had its best-ever season in terms of quality and quantity - is a real testament to the work done by the team. I’d like to thank all the drivers, the technical team and the support staff for making this season a successful one. We plan to be back next year regularly fighting for wins.”
