It was a case of ‘what might have been’ for Greystone GT as the International GT Open moved on to the Hockenheimring in Germany as outside factors denied Lewis and Stewart Proctor the result they richly deserved.
Following on from a superb Pro-Am pole position at the Portimao season-opener, Lewis Proctor was again chosen for Sunday morning qualifying duties aboard the #66 Prosource McLaren 720S GT3 and was a promising third in class and sixth overall.
However, the hopes of the Aberdeen racer and his father Stewart were dashed when Lewis was an innocent victim in a multi-car incident at the tight ‘Spitzkehre’ hairpin on the opening lap and was forced to retire with a damaged car.
Lewis had earlier shown promise after taking over from Stewart midway through Saturday’s 70-minute race as he set the second-best lap in Pro-Am.
Taking over the McLaren 14th in class, he immediately lapped at the overall leaders’ pace and climbed to 12th before the safety car bunched the field together before releasing the pack with six minutes remaining.
A congested track led to Lewis running wide and dropping off the tail of the pack ahead; a prelude to an impressive three-lap burst that brought him into the Pro-Am top 10 on the final lap.
Stewart had been behind the wheel for Saturday qualifying and was a season’s-best 15th in class; an impressive achievement as most Pro-Am teams had opted to run their Pro driver in the session and reverse duties for Sunday.
With Andrey Borodin committed elsewhere over the weekend, the sister #24 McLaren was not scheduled to race. Despite this, Oli Webb contested the two opening practice sessions on Friday to evaluate set-ups that should prove beneficial across the year.
The series continues at Circuit Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, on May 24-26.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “Speed-wise it’s very clear that we’re in a totally different situation to last year and even on a circuit they have limited experience of, both Lewis and Stewart are a far more competitive prospect than previously. Lewis is a match for anyone in Pro-Am and I’m sure that if we’d had a clean first lap rather than the terrible luck we suffered, he could have run with the overall leaders in his stint, just as he did in Portugal. Stewart was one of the small number of Am drivers on qualifying duty on Saturday so he did very well in the circumstances. Next up is Spa, a track Lewis and Stewart have raced at several times, so I’m confident we’ll put in a good showing there.”
