Greystone GT recorded their best British GT Championship qualifying result to date on a weekend when ultra-strong race pace by Stewart and Lewis Proctor went unrewarded thanks to the way circumstances unfolded.
The father-and-son duo from Aberdeen ran competitively all weekend to battle for the Silver-Am podium positions and still managed to rescue a pair of top-six finishes to remain in the hunt for the class title.
Lewis impressively scored Greystone GT’s best-ever British GT qualifying result on Saturday as he put the McLaren 720S GT3 second in Silver-Am and ninth overall for the final race of the weekend, ahead of a handful of vastly more experienced ‘Gold’-rated drivers.
He held his class position throughout the opening stint of the race and moved up to sixth overall, easily keeping pace with those around him.
Stewart took over driving duties during the mandatory pit window and looked set for a third-place finish when an unfortunate spin while lapping a backmarker dropped him two places.
Having qualified fifth for the opener, which was held several hours earlier, Stewart ran consistently to hand the car over to Lewis mid-race in the same position.
Lewis gained one place soon after and was chasing down the podium contenders when he suffered an issue with a backmarker of his own; contact at the fast Riches corner puncturing a tyre and forcing him into the pits for fresh rubber. He finished sixth.
The results, which did not reflect the race pace shown by either driver, means Lewis and Stewart hold fifth place in the Silver-Am standings with more than half the season now complete.
The next race takes place at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, on July 23-24.
Lewis Proctor said: “Although the end results weren’t what we targeted, I’m actually pretty pleased with the weekend in a funny sort of way. Both Dad and I had good stint speed all weekend and in Race Two I made up a few places, passed Phil Keen and was battling with Jonny Adam, so it was a good stint. We hadn’t changed tyres at the pitstop in Race One so I was really pleased with the laps I was able to put in, but I was hit off the track by another GT3 car in a move I thought was unacceptable, and in a desperate attempt to make up lost ground I made a fairly ambitious move on a GT4 car and had some contact, which had a big affect on the result.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “Lewis and Stewart arrived at Snetterton feeling that this was somewhere for them to get a big result or two, and both were seriously quick. Operationally the pitstops were slick and the pace both drivers had in the races was strong. Incidents involving the lapping of GT4 cars played a key role in the outcome of both races, but that’s just part and parcel of GT competition and something we have to take on the chin. We’re in a strong position now for Spa, where I think we can continue to make progress.”
