Greystone GT are excited to announce that a third McLaren 570S GT4 will contest the GT Cup’s GTH class across the full 2022 season.
Mark Hopton remains with the Silverstone-based team for his second year of racing and has a new co-driver for the year in the shape of former British GT Champion Euan Hankey.
Mark, from Derbyshire, made his race debut in December 2020 to prepare for a first full-time season in the GT Cup last year in a McLaren 570S GT4.
He made strong progress throughout the season as his experience of wheel-to-wheel competition grew and his speed increased. He and co-driver Adam Carroll ended the year with fourth-place finishes in the GTH category in the final two events.
Euan, from Somerset, has had a hugely successful professional career in sportscars. A GT4 Pro-Am title-winner in the 2020 British GT Championship, Euan was also the 2017 European Le Mans Series GTE runner-up.
He has taken class victories in the globally-renowned Spa and Dubai 24-Hour races, the International GT Open and the Le Mans Cup as well as starting the Le Mans 24 Hours three times.
Today’s news brings Greystone GT’s full-season line-up to four cars in the GT Cup with three GTH entries alongside one in the series’ top class, GT3.
Iain Campbell and Oli Webb will compete for GT3 success in a McLaren 720S GT3 while Mark and Euan will have team-mates Rich Mason/Jon Lancaster and Phillip Carter/Michael Broadhurst in GTH in similar 570S race cars.
Mark Hopton said: “I’m approaching my second season in a totally different frame of mind. I’m not a rookie anymore, I have a year’s experience and already I feel like I’m going about things in a way that allows me to concentrate fully on the driving. In Euan I have a co-driver who, as a factory McLaren driver, probably amassed more miles in the 570S GT4 than anyone else, and is the absolute model professional who I can learn a lot from. The target for this year is to get some podium finishes and continue to develop my speed and consistency.”
Euan Hankey said: “Although I’ve known quite a few of the team at Greystone GT for a long time, and have been involved with GT Cup drivers on the coaching side, I’ve actually never raced in the series, so I’m looking forward to finding out how everything is from the driver’s seat. I followed Mark’s progress last year and can see already from pre-season testing that he’s quicker and more consistent than he was at the end of his rookie season, and that makes me pretty excited to become a part of his journey at this point. I’d like to think that my experience of winning races and championship will help push our car to better and better finishes across the year. I think we’re in for a good year.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “We’re delighted to have Mark back for another season. He made excellent progress across 2021 and we can already see from pre-season testing that he’s a faster, more consistent and far better-prepared driver than 12 months ago. Bringing Euan into the team means we not only have someone who has won at some of the world’s most prestigious endurance races, but also someone who has driven more miles in McLaren racing cars than most other people on the planet. All that combined expertise is exactly what we need to push ourselves forward in 2022.”
