Greystone GT scored a pair of points finishes in both the International GT Open and the British GT Championship on a weekend where circumstances derailed the potential offered by the team’s underlying pace.
International GT Open
The third round of the series meant a change from the normal two-race routine as the legendary Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium hosted a single 500km race scheduled to run for two-hours, 40 minutes.
Top-five pace in the Pro-Am category was shown in practice by the crews of the #24 and #66 McLaren 720S GT3 Evos; a matter underlined as drivers Oli Webb and Lewis Proctor set the third and fourth-best times in their fully-dry section of qualifying.
But with co-drivers Andrey Borodin and Stewart Proctor’s session taking place on a drying circuit – and with combined times of all crews determining the grid – the cars started 20th and 17th in class.
Stewart produced an outstanding opening stint as he rapidly climbed the field to reach 10th in Pro-Am with just one lap remaining before the first pit window opened.
Unfortunately, the Aberdeen-based racer was spun by a rival at the Bus Stop chicane (for which his assailant was later penalised); the 30-second time loss proving crucial later in the race.
Over the next two stints both Lewis and Stewart drove magnificently to move into contention for a top-five result in class, but the former was dealt a blow when – having just climbed aboard for the final stint – he was trapped a lap down when an incident triggered a safety car.
Once racing resumed he overtook all but one of his Pro-Am rivals that had similarly been stuck a lap down behind the safety car and finished sixth.
There was a similarly gutsy charge by Oli, who had taken over the sister car in 20th place in class and was, for around 15 minutes of his opening stint, not only the fastest car on track, but also the only driver routinely lapping below the 2m21s mark.
The Knutsford racer set the second-best Pro-Am lap of the race and had the third-best average laptime overall of the entire race – quicker than those of the race winners. He and Andrey took their best result of the season with 12th in class.
British GT Championship
The bad weather that had affected practice and qualifying at Spa reached Donington Park by Sunday; a downpour as the formation lap began forcing a delayed start to allow the field to switch to wet tyres on the grid.
Such inclement conditions created extra challenges for Mike Price and Callum Macleod aboard the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3, who had been sixth-fastest in Pro-Am in practice and qualified 10th in the category.
Faced with a drying track as racing began, Mike was soon in for slick tyres and a driver swap; Pro racer Callum quickly closing the gap to the cars ahead, but an instant thunderstorm of biblical proportions 15 minutes led to a ‘river’ forming at the end of the start/finish straight; seven drivers – including Callum – aquaplaning off into the gravel.
The race was red-flagged for 45 minutes to allow conditions to improve, but with #3 now a lap down. Superb performances from both Mike and Callum for the remaining portion of the race brought them up to ninth in Pro-Am, earning them a points finish.
The series resumes at Spa-Francorchamps on June 22-23 while the GT Open crews will race at the Hungaroring on the same weekend.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “What an up-and-down weekend. The real positive is that we have fast cars in both series and the speed and consistency our pro drivers have shown over the past couple of events have proven that the work we’ve done over the winter and in the early part of the season is paying off. Stewart’s opening stint in Spa was excellent and if he hadn’t been hit and Lewis had been on the lead lap for the final stint, I’m sure we could have challenged for the podium. We’d been in the top three in the dry testing at Donington too so again, without the weather turning, I’m confident we could have been much higher up. These things are outside your control though. The team are doing a good job and everyone’s holding their heads high.”
