Greystone GT duo Mark Hopton and Euan Hankey claimed their second GT Cup victory of the year with a perfectly-judged performance in the first of two 50-minute Pitstop Races at Silverstone during the weekend.
Having started strongly from fourth on the grid, Derby racer handed over to his professional co-driver Euan, who chased down the cars ahead of him over the final 20 minutes and finished second on the road.
That became a win when post-race checks resulted in a revised result and gave Silverstone-based Greystone GT a fourth GT Cup win of the year at the same track where they claimed their maiden success in their rookie season last year.
Victory meant Mark and Euan inherited the maximum 20-second ‘success’ penalty for Sunday’s Pitstopper, the extra time loss compared to the other cars removing any chance of a double success. They were sixth and sit third in the GTH points as a result.
Mark drove solo to third and fifth in the two Sprint Races, having scored Greystone GT’s best-ever GTH qualifying result with fourth on Saturday.
Closely matching Mark was rookie Phillip Carter, whose first season in racing continued superbly with third place alongside his Professional co-driver Michael Broadhurst in Saturday’s Pitstop Race.
York-based Phillip added sixth in GTH in Saturday’s Sprint and then qualified a career-best fifth on Sunday morning. He and Michael are sixth in the standings.
Iain Campbell, twice an outright winner in the showpiece GT3 category this year, led Sunday’s Sprint Race briefly in the wet, but dropped to the tail of the field when he pitted for slicks under safety-car conditions and did not have enough green-flag running to recover higher than seventh.
The Sandhurst racer and his Knutsford-based Pro team-mate Oli Webb were fourth in GT3 in both Pitstop Races while Iain was sixth on his own on Saturday morning.
American Ron Trenka returned to the GT Cup at Silverstone what what is set to be his final appearance of the season alongside former European Le Mans Series Champion Jon Lancaster in the #80 McLaren.
Qualifying 14th twice, the New York-based racer suffered a frustrating opening race when he sustained a puncture and further damage after running over debris on the opening lap of Saturday’s Sprint Race.
Having completed just three flying laps of the Silverstone track in his life before the Pitstop Race, Ron and Leeds racer Jon combined for 12th in GTH, but were unable to improve on Sunday.
Another series returnee, Andrey Borodin, made his first appearance of the season in a McLaren 720S GT3 alongside Pro co-driver Ed Pead.
Andrey showed excellent composure in the mixed conditions on Sunday morning, ending the Sprint Race sixth in GT3 having opted to go the distance on wet tyres. He and Ed were eighth in both Pitstop Races.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “We’ve now won at four of the five GT Cup events held in 2022 across both the classes we compete in and that shows not only the progress we’ve made as a team since last year, but also the level to which our Sporting and Professional drivers are competing at now, on and off-track. Seeing Mark and Euan get another win for the team is outstanding, but there were terrific performances from everybody across the weekend and that’s so encouraging to see. This was a big weekend for the team with five GT Cup cars racing for the first time in 2022 and, with GT4 European Series at Spa-Francorchamps also taking place, it was also our first time competing in two different championships on a single weekend. It was a significant step for our organisation but one that we planned for, and the team can be very proud of their achievements.”
