Greystone GT to make Gulf 12 Hours debut in 2022

Greystone GT will start the 2022 motorsport season in early January with the team’s first major endurance race at the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi.

Created in 2012 and held at the Yas Marina Circuit, the Gulf 12 Hours will feature some of the world’s top GT racing teams and drivers going head-to-head for glory in the year’s opening international sportscar event on January 8.

Silverstone-based Greystone GT have entered a single McLaren 570S GT4 into the GT4 class, to be raced by GT Cup competitor Iain Campbell, his regular professional co-driver Oli Webb and former Ferrari Challenge UK Champion Jamie Clarke.

Sandhurst racer Iain completed his first season of racing in 2021 in the UK’s GT Cup alongside his Gulf co-driver Oli; the pair securing Greystone GT’s first-ever podium finish with second place at Snetterton in June.

They added three more before the season’s end in the same McLaren they will race in Abu Dhabi; Iain later scoring a maiden career win on his debut weekend in the Pure McLaren GT Series in Austin, Texas, for McLaren Glasgow by Greystone GT.

Professional racer Oli returns to an event he last contested in 2013. January’s race will mean that the Knutsford racer will have driven every contemporary McLaren GT racing car of the modern era at the circuit.

Oli brings nine years of sportscar racing experience to the line-up; the highlights of which were the European Le Mans Series title in 2014, victory at the 2015 Dubai 24 Hours and eight starts at the Le Mans 24 Hours. 

Jamie makes his Greystone GT debut in Abu Dhabi, which will also be his first time racing a GT4 McLaren. The Glasgow racer won the Scottish Legends Cars title in 2003 and later finished as runner-up in the UK series.

He took an 11-year hiatus from racing to focus on business interests, but returned in 2019 to win the inaugural Ferrari Challenge UK title, giving him fresh impetus to compete internationally for the first time.

The Gulf 12 Hours is run as a pair of six-hour races on the same day with both parts added together to determine the final result.

It will be only the second time that the Yas Marina Circuit’s revised 3.3-mile layout, which features a banked 180-degree corner, will have been used, following its debut at this month’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Iain Campbell said: “I’ve been keen to do the Gulf 12 Hours so I can stay race-sharp during the winter. We had a strong first year in the GT Cup and I wanted to do more longer-distance GT racing anyway, so this is a good way of doing that with a GT4 in a competitive environment. Without knowing the level of the bronze drivers Jamie and I will be up against, it’s impossible to know where we’ll be pace-wise, but I’d like to aim firstly to finish the race and then to be in the top half of the GT4 order. A podium would be amazing.”

Jamie Clarke said: “I’m so excited about competing at the Gulf 12 Hours. I was planning a European programme with [Team Principal] Mark McLoughlin and [Sporting Manager] Tim Mullen for 2020 before the pandemic came along and put that on ice, so to have a chance to now kick things off with them and Greystone GT in Abu Dhabi is great. Oli is a superstar  who’s always at the front in whatever he races and Iain has had an impressive rookie season, so I think we can put on a good showing.”

Oli Webb said: “It’s great to start the season so early and get some proper racing under our belts immediately. The Gulf 12 Hours is a great event to start with too with probably its best-ever entry this year. While I haven’t raced at the event since 2013, I’ve done a lot of laps around Yas Marina in all kinds of racing cars, including the new layout very recently, which really helps the flow of the track. My aim is to be the fastest GT4 McLaren driver in qualifying and I think that Iain and Jamie will surprise a few people, despite their relative lack of experience. A podium is a realistic target if we can have a clear run.”

 Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s incredibly exciting to be taking on our first real endurance contest at the Gulf 12 Hours. We’re under no illusions; this will be the most difficult race we’ve ever entered against a truly international line-up of teams, all after the same thing as us. For Iain - who’s only just finished his first year of racing - and for Jamie, who’s new to the car and the team, this is going to be a big test. But we’ve assembled a first-class team to support this programme, many with experience of the highest level of sportscar racing, and in Oli we have a driver who can mix it with the very best along with two very impressive bronze drivers in Iain and Jamie. We know we have the expertise necessary to compete.”