Greystone GT are delighted to announce that Phillip Carter and Michael Broadhurst will step up to a full-time programme in the GT Cup Series this year.
The duo made a one-off appearance behind the wheel of a McLaren 570S GT4 at Donington Park last year - and will now contest a full campaign in the series’ GTH class.
They are the second driver pairing confirmed for the season by the Gulf 12 Hours GT4-winning team, joining the fellow GTH line-up of Rich Mason and Jon Lancaster.
The 2022 season will be a first full season of racing for Phillip, for whom last year’s Donington event marked a race debut. He and co-driver Michael scored a best finish of eighth across the four-race weekend.
The York racer has spent the past year developing his on-track skills as part of a thorough testing programme with Michael on coaching duties across the period.
Northampton-based Michael brings a wealth of GT experience to the line-up. A race winner in the British GT Championship, the FIA European GT4 Cup and the GT Cup, he has also claimed victories in the Radical Enduro and Ginetta G20 Series.
This will mark his first full season of racing since the 2019 British GT Championship, in which he was a multiple podium finisher in class. He ended that season with a dominant GT Cup outing at Snetterton in which his car won all four races.
GT Cup events typically feature practice, qualifying, two sprint races of 25-minute duration and two longer 50-minute pitstop races with driver changes allowed.
The emphasis is placed on giving ‘sporting’ drivers like Phillip as much track time as possible, meaning professionals like Michael are restricted to taking part in practice and the second 25-minute stint of each pitstop race.
Seven rounds will be held at the UK’s best racetracks between April and October with live streaming of all races on the GT Cup YouTube channel.
Phillip Carter said: “We did the Donington round last September as a toe-in-the-water exercise and it was a real eye-opener not only being on track with other cars nearby, but having to really race them too. It truly validated everything we’d done leading up to it too - an amazing experience. I did find a few tenths that weekend over my previous best lap from testing, but my starts weren’t good so that’s an area I’ll try to focus on before the start of the season. I’m just going to go in with an open mind, do the best I can, learn from Michael and the team and enjoy it as much as possible. I would like to think we can be on the podium at least once.”
Michael Broadhurst said: “I can’t wait for the season to start. The last time I had a full-season programme was in 2019 and, ironically, we ended that year with a clean sweep of GTH victories in the GT Cup at Snetterton. The nice thing from my side is that we’re going into 2022 much better-prepared than with any rookie driver I’ve worked with before. Phillip had a taster of the GT Cup race format at Donington Park last year and coped very well, but naturally he’s very low on race experience so there’s an awful lot to learn. He took a few people by surprise with his outright pace that weekend, but where we have to do the work is making sure he can unlock the potential of the McLaren on new tyres in a 10-minute qualifying session, because that’s all new to him. If we can do all that, I see no reason why we can’t be targeting podiums by the middle of the season.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s shaping up to be another busy season for us in the GT Cup and it’s great to add Phillip - another driver who’s graduated from our Supercar Trackday programme - and Michael to the line-up on a full-time basis. Phillip is in a better position experience-wise compared to the benchmark in GTH than any of our Sporting Drivers were last year ahead of their debut seasons and that will help him a huge amount. Crucially he’s had one weekend in the GT Cup in this car, so he knows how the processes work on and off the track as well as having bedded in with the team and Michael over the course of 2021. As a duo they have a lot of potential this season and we’ll be behind them every step of the way to help them achieve their aims.”
