Greystone GT scored a fourth podium finish from five British GT Championship events with a storming performance from Lewis and Stewart Proctor at the iconic Circuit Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Sunday.
An heroic stint from Stewart – who was suffering from a heavy bout of overnight food poisoning – and another impressive drive by Lewis promoted the Aberdeen-based father-and-son pair to second place in the series’ Silver-Am standings with two races to go.
Beginning their Belgian weekend with free practice, the pair worked on the balance of their McLaren 720S GT3 ahead of qualifying and then combined to put the car fourth on the Silver-Am grid; Lewis setting the fastest single laptime in the category.
Despite driving with the effects of his food poisoning, Stewart turned in his best stint of the season, reaching the mid-race pitstops in third place in Silver-Am, just a one second behind the car in second place.
Slick pitwork from the Greystone GT crew helped Lewis to emerge in second place and he then clung on to the position with an impressive stint of his own before a late drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits left him third at the chequered flag.
Making his British GT debut at Spa in a second car was Iain Campbell, whose season has already included a pair of GT3 wins in the GT Cup and a GT4 success at the Gulf 12 Hours with Greystone GT.
He and Oli Webb were entered in the Pro-Am class as a guest entrant and made impressive progress throughout the weekend.
After establishing a car set-up that gave Sandhurst racer Iain the confidence to push the limits of the McLaren, he and Oli qualified eighth in Pro-Am and 12th overall, and Iain then made excellent gains during the first half of his stint to climb to sixth place overall.
An unfortunate spin after 45 minutes cost the #17 McLaren time and dropped it to 14th spot with a flat-spotted tyre ahead of the pitstops, but once aboard, former European Le Mans Series champion Oli set about regaining lost ground.
The Knutsford racer’s charge brought the car to eighth in Pro-Am and 11th overall by the chequered flag and eighth in Pro-Am.
The next round takes place on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in Kent on September 10-11.
Lewis Proctor said: “I’m really chuffed with the way the weekend went. The pace in qualifying was strong and Dad did a great stint considering he was unwell with the food poisoning – in fact, there were several other members of the team that had it and there seemed to be more as the day went on. We were quick in clean air, but fighting in a pack against other McLarens meant it was nearly impossible to pass cars with the same strengths, but the aero wash made it hard to keep the car on track, so a couple of us ended up with drive-throughs for exceeding track limits. Then in the last few laps the windscreen came loose and fell out, but it was generally good pace-wise. It’s a strong podium – could have been even better without the drive-through, but that’s on me. We’ll take good momentum into Brands Hatch.”
Iain Campbell said: “I’ve enjoyed myself. Spa’s a great track and we moved closer to the outright pace as we went through the weekend. It took a little time to find a balance I was comfortable with, and even in qualifying I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t go a bit quicker, but I was happy with most of my stint in the race, passed a few cars and felt quicker than the drivers that were in front of me. The spin was a shame, but totally my fault. The worst thing was that there was still 12 minutes to the pit window and I had a flat spot on a tyre so was losing lots of time each lap. Without that we could have easily been in the top 10. It was a learning experience and an indication of the level this championship’s at compared to the GT Cup, where Oli and I have won a couple of races this year.”
Oli Webb said: “I think we did well for a first attempt at a British GT weekend. It took us a little while to find a strong pace. Because the track temperatures were far higher than anything we’ve experienced with the Pirelli tyre this year, we had quite a lot of oversteer initially and it took a session or two to dial that back and find a set-up that gave Iain the confidence to push. We got there though and by the race he was running strongly against a lot of much-more experienced Am drivers and even passed a few. We were a bit unlucky that when I got in the car I exited the pits in among a bunch of GT4 cars and it took a little bit of time to clear them, which lost me ground on the cars I was fighting with. I took a bit too much out of my tyres catching up and didn’t have the additional pace once I got back up to them, but I’d been doing the same pace as the leaders up to that point, which isn’t bad for a first British GT race for nine years.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “Four podiums from five events is strong return from our first British GT season so far. We were on course for our first top-six overall finish and second in Silver-Am before the drive-through, so it’s a bit of a shame not to get the result that Lewis and Stewart deserved for their speed. Stewart especially, for racing despite having food poisoning, was a bit of a hero and his pace was quite stunning actually. He and Lewis are getting stronger and stronger by the round. Seeing how well Iain coped on his series debut is a big credit to him and how hard he’s worked on every element of his racing in the past 18 months, as well as to the role the team’s played in helping him. He impressed a lot of people with the speed and racecraft he showed at Spa and Oli was the true professional alongside him. They work extremely well together and that showed once again.”
