Greystone GT scored a magnificent GT Cup race win at Brands Hatch as Mark Hopton and and co-driver Euan Hankey climbed to the top step of the podium for the first time.
With Phillip Carter and Michael Broadhurst making it a double podium in the GTH category in the final race of the weekend and Iain Campbell and Oli Webb bagging a brace of third places in GT3, the Silverstone-based team took its best-ever podium haul.
Key to the success of the #77 McLaren 570S GT4 was a team decision to start Sunday’s final event - the 50-minute Pitstop Race - on slick tyres, despite rain beginning to fall as the cars headed to the grid.
Starting fourth by virtue of his personal-best lap in the earlier Sprint Race, Derby racer Mark turned in an incredible opening stint in the low-grip conditions; generating sufficient heat in his slicks to lap over half a second quicker than any other GTH car for large periods.
This meant he pitted to hand over to pro racer Euan with a 10-second lead and the Spa 24 Hours class winner did what was needed to turn that into a 27s victory; his first in the GT Cup and Mark’s first in any form of racing.
The pair had matched their previous best finish 24 hours earlier with fourth in the Saturday Pitstop Race while Mark drove solo to sixth and eighth in the two Sprint Races; results that earned him the Driver of the Day award at the end-of-weekend prizegiving.
Joining them on the podium after the finale were Phillip - incredibly taking part in just his third racing event - and Michael; the duo making a similar slick-tyre gamble and the latter looking on in delight as Phillip pulled off some classy overtaking moves early on.
Taking over the #14 McLaren in eighth, Northampton-based Michael tore through the field, making up place after place in the drying conditions and climbing into the podium positions with a handful of minutes remaining. Further finishes in eighth and 10th completed an excellent weekend.
Iain Campbell and Oli Webb scored Greystone GT’s first outright GT Cup win last time out at Donington and this time claimed a double-podium finish for the first time.
Iain, from Sandhurst, qualified fourth in class for the opener - Greystone GT’s best GT3 grid spot to date - and finished fifth, but after turning in what he described as ‘the race of his life’ in the later Pitstop Race, he and Oli were able to add a third-place finish to their season record.
Another fourth place in Sunday’s Sprint was followed by a further podium in the damp Pitstop Race; Iain opting to start on wet tyres and superbly keeping his rubber ‘alive’ all the way to the pit window despite track conditions quickly switching to the benefit of the slick-shod runners.
Despite losing out due to some extremely aggressive blocking by the eventual race winner when trying to regain a lost lap, Knutsford racer Oli was able to complete the race with a podium that keeps the duo fourth in the GT3 points, but now only two points from a top-three position.
American Ron Trenka, competing in the UK for only the second time, drove the GP layout for the first time in Saturday morning practice, but scored his best qualifying result to date in 12th and then repeated that result for his best solo race finish too.
Paired with pro racer Jon Lancaster, from Leeds, the duo recorded their best finish of the weekend in the Sunday Pitstop Race in ninth place. Ron’s final confirmed event of the season at present is the next round at Snetterton.
Mark Hopton said: “It feels incredible to be a race winner. Eighteen months ago I’d never raced and here I am beating GT champions… I can’t even begin to say how grateful I am to Greystone GT and to Euan for everything they’ve done to get me to this point. After finishing fourth on Saturday, I knew the podium was there for the taking. We were all in a line in the Sprint Race, so I deliberately dropped back, gave myself a gap and just sent it to get a good laptime for the Pitstop Race grid. That put us near the front and when the rain came we opted for used slicks, which was 100 per cent the right decision. The grip was okay on the line, I passed a few cars and it wasn’t even hard to get the laptimes in. It’s just an incredible feeling when the car will do everything you ask. I’m over the moon. I really am.”
Euan Hankey said: “Of course it’s great to get my first win in the GT Cup, Mark’s first win ever and the first GTH victory for Greystone GT of 2022. After Donington Mark and I had a long talk about how we could move forwards performance-wise and he’s come to Brands Hatch like a totally different driver. He’s been on it, wet or dry, been confident in his ability, made some top passing moves and then come up with an incredible stint on a slippery track in the final race. My job was pretty straightforward when I got in; just bring it home. He knows what winning feels like now and I have a feeling he’ll want to repeat it pretty soon. I do too.”
Phillip Carter said: “What an unbelievable feeling - a total surprise. My first ever Greystone GT event was a Supercar Trackday on the GP loop here just as lockdown lifted in 2020, so to get my first racing podium here as well less than two years later feels quite appropriate somehow. I know that the thing I still have to learn more and more about is the wheel-to-wheel racing, and the experience of Donington has really helped me. That added knowledge was so helpful this weekend, especially in the damp Pitstop Race. On the line the grip was fine on slicks and I quite enjoyed finding the limit of the tyre and made some nice moves, so for Mikey to finish the job and get us on the podium is fantastic.”
Michael Broadhurst said: “I’m still not sure how that podium finish came together as it was an ever-changing picture with different people on different tyres at different times, but I’ll take it any day of the week and so will Phillip. His progress has been outstanding and it’s quite hard to believe this was only his third-ever race event. We took a big risk going on slicks at the start of the last race, but he did a mega job on a damp track and has really stepped up. We now have a few tracks coming up that Phillip has tested on before so this is just the start…”
Iain Campbell said: “I’d swear that my stint in the Saturday Pitstop Race is the best I’ve ever driven. I had to defend, make some tough moves and overtake some cars, but it was all good and we ended up on the podium and scored more points than we managed in our winning weekend at Donington. It was clear after about three laps of Sunday’s Pitstop Race that wet tyres were the wrong call, but I think we managed the situation well and probably gained time by sticking with the wets until the pit window rather than making an extra stop like some others did. We’ve had a strong first two events with the GT3 McLaren and we definitely have a chance to win again at Snetterton - a track I like an awful lot.”
Oli Webb said: “Iain and I have been on the podium twice this weekend, which is the first time we’ve ever done that in the GT Cup. We have to be happy with that from a results point of view. The final race wasn’t easy with the weather changing while we were in the collecting area. We had a split-second decision and chose wets. While that was slower in hindsight, the winning car went off twice in the early stages and that could have been us; so given Iain’s lack of wet running in the GT3, it was the right choice to make sure he had confidence in the car. Iain’s driven extremely well over the weekend, in particular yesterday where he held off a driver acknowledged as one of the best Am racers in the UK. My only real negative is the aggressive blocking from the Lamborghini [Andrea Amici] when I was trying to unlap myself in the Pitstop Race, which felt unnecessary.”
Ron Trenka said: “It’s been a mainly positive weekend, though I wish the last race had been dry because I think we’d have been running with the pack after the progress we’d made up to that point. Slicks were the way to go in the last Pitstop Race, but because I’d never really driven in the wet before, rain tyres were a good decision and I definitely benefitted from the experience. It’s been a great weekend for Greystone GT with the win and three podiums in the last race and that shows the quality of what’s being done here. I can’t wait for Snetterton because I think we can be looking at challenging for the top six given the rate we’re progressing at.”
Jon Lancaster said: “It’s my first time racing on the GP track here, which might surprise a few people, and I’m definitely finding the GT4 McLaren more to my liking than last year, so it’s always good to keep learning. The Ron Trenka we saw at the end of the weekend was a totally different driver to the one that tested on the Indy Circuit on Friday. The rate at which he learned and progressed was astounding. He’s had another mistake-free weekend and in the dry he was close to the pace that the cars in mid-pack were running in Sunday’s Sprint Race. The last race was his first time racing in the wet, so we played it safe and didn’t risk slick tyres, and that was the right call. I look at Mark Hopton putting in that incredible stint on slicks in the damp and think about the progress he’s made in a year… Well I can see Ron doing something similar.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s been a fantastic start to the GT Cup season with Iain and Oli getting their first win at Donington and now Mark and Euan doing the same thing. With Phillip scoring his first podium and Ron making real progress at a track that’s totally new to him, it’s been a very strong weekend. Our Sporting Drivers have all made huge steps forward and we’ve worked incredibly hard as a team - from mechanics and engineers through to our professional racers - to achieve this. We’ll be working harder than ever to try and repeat this result at future events, but for now I want to say a huge well done and thank you to everyone that’s played a part in the weekend.”
