McLaren Glasgow by Greystone GT enjoyed a magnificent debut in the Pure McLaren GT Series by claiming a dominant victory with driver Tim Whale.
The event at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve was a landmark occasion as Silverstone-based Greystone GT became the first independent team to enter the series on behalf of an official UK McLaren dealer; representing McLaren Glasgow for this event in Portugal.
It also marked the first time Greystone GT had raced outside the UK; the trip to Portugal coming not long after the team scored their first-ever win the GT Cup at Silverstone.
The weekend was the first race event of any kind for Tim for 19 years, but the Worcester driver - who had sampled the Greystone GT-run McLaren at a test at Donington Park in July - showed no signs of rustiness at all.
Tim was dominant on Saturday as he paced the Bruce McLaren Cup section of the event of both morning practice sessions, stormed to class pole position by over 2.5 seconds and then led every lap of the race on his way to a 26s victory in his McLaren 570S GT4.
Even more impressively, Tim’s win came after a superb drive that got him to the chequered flag ahead of a number of highly-experienced drivers in the faster ‘GT’ class for cars with an extra 110bhp.
From the start of the competitive action on Friday morning Tim was right on the pace, surging to the head of the Cup class in practice and pulling further clear in qualifying.
He sprinted into the lead of the class at the start of Friday’s opening race and appeared en route to a sensational comeback win until an electrical issue caused the car to jump into neutral, leaving Tim to pull off the track.
A replacement control panel resolved the issue for Saturday, laying the foundations for a dominant performance by Tim, who was quickest in every session.
Fittingly for a driver who raced with the #27 - as used by Ayrton Senna to win the 1990 Formula 1 World Championship with McLaren - Tim’s winners’ trophy was presented by the great Brazilian’s nephew Bruno; himself an ex-grand prix driver.
Tim Whale said: “What a weekend! After nearly 20 years away from racing I could never really have dreamed it would go so well. Standing there on the top step of the podium was quite a strange feeling; more relief than anything else. I’d spent 25 minutes trying to keep a McLaren Development Driver right behind me and he was quick - on my tail for the whole time - and that’s quite mentally demanding. A huge thank you to Greystone GT, who were fantastic and helped me enjoy every minute, and to my Driver Coach Adam Carroll. After this, I’ll definitely be back for another go at some point.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “We couldn’t really ask for a better result than to come to our first overseas event and win. Tim was brilliant all weekend; he definitely didn’t look like a driver who’d been away for nearly 20 years, and he richly deserves his win. While winning the Bruce McLaren Cup was impressive in itself, being as close as he was to some of the more experienced drivers in the faster classes - and ahead of some too - was pretty amazing. An an overall experience, Pure McLaren is really something else; highly prestigious and brilliantly executed. A huge thank you to the team at Pure McLaren and to McLaren Glasgow for inviting Greystone GT to represent them.”
