Greystone GT scored their maiden GT4 European Series points finishes on a weekend when the ups and downs of motorsport were fully experienced in sweltering temperatures at Misano on Italy’s Adriatic coast.
Drivers Tim Whale and Adam Carroll came home well inside the top 10 in the weekend’s opening race aboard the GETTRX McLaren 570S GT4 while Richard Distl – paired with Alain Valente – also claimed his first points finish in the series.
Having started 27th overall in Race One – and 14th in the Pro-Am category – after encountering traffic in qualifying, professional racer Adam was one of the stars of the opening stint.
Making up a staggering 19 places in just over 30 minutes, the Northern Irishman pitted from eighth spot overall and sixth in Pro-Am to hand over to Tim.
Around 15 seconds were lost at the driver change as a Full-Course Yellow period, called just as Adam dived into the pitlane, benefitted cars that stopped while the majority of the field circulated well below normal racing speeds.
This meant that Worcestershire-born Tim, now based in Barcelona, who was competing for just the fourth time after a 20-year break from racing, was given a bit of extra work to do as racing resumed with him 14th overall.
Some decisive moves brought him to seventh overall and in Pro-Am by the chequered flag – a fine effort after an issue had robbed he and Adam of a podium finish two corners from the end of the previous race at Paul Ricard, France.
Tim was even more impressive on Sunday morning as he climbed from 11th on the Pro-Am grid to sixth place within the first quarter of the race; setting the fastest second sector of all 50 drivers on-track to that point.
Sadly that was as far as he would get as another car made contact with the rear of the GETTRX McLaren, breaking its wheel rim and turning it sharply into the pit wall; causing extensive front-end damage as Tim exited the race.
A power issue affected the pace of the #60 McLaren of Richard Distl and Alain Valente through practice and qualifying, meaning the latter started the opener from 36th overall and 17th in Pro-Am.
But with the problem traced to a sensor in the exhaust and rectified in time for the race, both drivers showed exactly what they were capable of in racing conditions.
Swiss ace Alain – making a delayed Greystone GT debut in Italy – tore through the field to 16th overall during the opening half of the race and onto the fringes of the Pro-Am points positions.
Richard showed consistent speed to finish 19th overall and 10th in class – the best finish to date for the car.
Their Sunday race followed a familiar pattern to that of #47. Richard started brilliantly from 18th in Pro-Am and 44th overall and carved past a train of far more experienced racers to reach the pitstops 33rd outright and 12th in Pro-Am.
Alain continued the progress and had the McLaren in a position to score its first Pro-Am points of the season until a left-front puncture forced him to retire with a quarter of the race to go.
Tim Whale said: “It’s great to get our first points on the board. Misano is a track that suits the McLaren. We have good straight-line speed so if you can maximise your corner exits, you can make use of the three long straights here to make up some spots. The Race Two incident was unfortunate. I felt the contact at my rear and just went around and into the pit wall. It looks like my left-rear wheel rim was shredded by its front right and that’s meant our tyres contacted, broke the suspension and I’ve gone around. I’m pleased with my speed and my overtaking this weekend in the races and I’ll take that all forwards to Spa.”
Adam Carroll said: “To get points in a series like this, where 50 cars are so closely matched, is a big achievement in only our third event and at a track Tim’s never raced at. After Paul Ricard we worked on Tim looking for the next position and not worrying about who’s behind him, and he really did that with some fantastic overtaking moves in both races. The McLaren is better in race trim than qualifying and I felt the races came back towards us as the stints went on. We had very good consistency. Tim was the fastest Pro-Am driver at the time of the crash and the car he was just behind at the time finished on the podium, so that could have been us. It’s exciting for Spa.”
Alain Valente said: “Overall it was a good weekend. We had a few problems in practice and qualifying with the power, so I only did one lap in qualifying to get into the race, but the mechanics did a very good job to fix the car for the races. After starting more or less last in both races we made some great progress. In Race One I handed over to Richard in 16th and we finished 19th and then in Race Two Richard started a long way back and pitted from about 33rd. I got into the points when I got a front-left puncture and had to retire the car, but the speed was good, so it was an overall positive experience. Thanks to Greystone GT for everything.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s a huge lift for everyone to score good points, especially after we came so close to the podium at Paul Ricard. There was a big step forwards in Tim’s racecraft and Adam was, as usual, faultless. The team did a great job to diagnose the power issue and Richard recovered well from the challenges of practice and qualifying to score a point in what’s probably the most intense racing environment he’s ever experienced. It was great to finally have Alain make his debut – 10 months after his first test with us – and he showed excellent speed and racecraft on another weekend where are our race pace was strong with both cars. We do need to improve in qualifying though and that’s something we’ll work on ahead of Spa – a circuit we had a positive test at in June and that should suit the McLaren.”
