New GT Cup race winners Greystone GT will expand to a four-car line-up for the upcoming round at Donington Park with an additional McLaren 570S GT4.
Debutant Phillip Carter and international GT race winner Michael Broadhurst will be behind of the wheel of the McLaren, which will compete at the East Midlands track on September 18-19.
The duo will join the existing cars raced by Silverstone winners Rich Mason/Jon Lancaster, Mark Hopton/Adam Carroll and Iain Campbell/Oli Webb in the hotly-contested GTH class.
Phillip, from York, began undertaking a thorough test and development programme behind the wheel of the GT4 McLaren during the second half of 2020 with Michael performing coaching duties.
Further track time has been added for the self-confessed ‘speed freak’ during 2021 as he has focused on developing his on-track skills within the Greystone GT family.
Michael, 33, will make his first appearance in the GT Cup since 2019, when he completed a clean sweep of GTH class wins on a one-off outing at Snetterton.
The Northampton-based racer wrote his name into British GT history in 2008 by taking GT4 victory on the category’s series debut and finished third in the pro-am class in 2019. He is also a race winner in the European GT4 Cup, Radical Enduro and Ginetta G20 series.
Phillip Carter said: “I’ve been a speed freak all my life, be it fast jets, bicycles or, more recently, racing cars. The opportunity to get on-track with the McLaren and be a part of a team like Greystone GT is something that has really spurred me on this journey towards making my race debut, which I couldn’t be more excited about. I chose Greystone GT because of the high-quality way they do things, and Mark [McLoughlin] and Tim [Mullen] have been great in helping me outside of the car. On the driving front, Michael first sat alongside me at Goodwood last year and I couldn’t wish for a better teacher and co-driver. I feel as prepared as I can be, but I also know there’s nothing like the real thing, so I’m expecting a baptism of fire. I haven’t set any targets, but getting to the end of the first event and enjoying it feels like a good place to start.”
Michael Broadhurst said: “I’m really looking forward racing in the GT Cup again. My last time was in 2019 at Snetterton when we won our class in every race. Mark [McLoughlin] was actually my driver coach when I was in Formula Renault 15 years ago, so it’s quite a privilege that he’s asked me to part of the Greystone GT racing programme alongside some really top professionals. Phillip has shown impressive speed in testing against a number of more experienced drivers, but he hasn’t raced before so going wheel-to-wheel with other cars and having to deal with traffic-management in a 40-car field is going to be quite an eye-opener. He’s clearly a fast learner and if we have a good weekend, I hope we can turn it into a full programme for 2022.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s hard to imagine that just 12 months ago the Greystone GT race team didn’t exist, and yet here we are as race winners in a hugely-competitive series like the GT Cup against drivers and outfits with years of experience and achievement behind them. And now we’re expanding to a fourth car with Phillip - who has learnt so quickly since he first drove the McLaren 570S GT4 at out Silverstone High-Performance Test Day last September - and Michael, who’s a model professional and has been with him every step of the way. This is yet more validation that our focus on driver development - which has now taken four enthusiastic rookies from zero to race-ready - is doing exactly what we hoped and I’m sure Phillip and Michael will have a great experience.”
