Greystone GT scored a maiden title success on Sunday as the Silverstone-based outfit became the inaugural McLaren Trophy Teams’ Champions in a dramatic season finale at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
But while there was joy for the team in many quarters, there was heartbreak for Rafa Martinez and Jem Hepworth, who were on course to win the 570S Trophy Drivers’ crown when a technical issue on the penultimate lap of the season denied them.
It followed a charging performance by Texas-based Rafa, who had qualified on class pole for the season finale but inherited his car in fifth place after a combative opening stint by Jem and a five-second ‘success’ penalty during their pitstop for finishing second on Saturday.
Past one rival before the end of his out-lap, Rafa then closed on team-mate Shaun Pendrigh and passed him with 10 minutes to go; knowing that with the race leader incurring a time penalty that would drop him out of contention, this would be enough for the title.
Agonisingly, the #24 McLaren ground to a halt on the penultimate lap and did so several more times, dropping him to fourth place – a result that led to Rafa and Jem missing out on thee title by just three points.
The duo had fought hard to finish second on Saturday – their seventh podium of the year – one place ahead of Shaun, who was joined in the #74 entry by Michael Broadhurst, with regular co-driver Stuart White committed elsewhere.
Shaun and Michael – the latter having had one of the battles of the season with Jem earlier as the duo went wheel-to-wheel for six corners – inherited second after Rafa’s issue and sealed fourth place in the points.
In the category for the newer, more powerful Artura Trophy cars, Mark Hopton and Euan Hankey closed out the season with a strong second-place finish overall.
Mark equalled his best career qualifying result with second on Sunday and his professional co-driver Euan darted into the lead at the start and defended his advantage throughout the stint.
A minor error under immense pressure from behind caused Mark to cede the lead with 15 minutes remaining, but the Dubai-based Midlander came home to score a seventh podium of the year and secure the runner-up spot in the Drivers’ Championship.
The duo were fourth in Race One after recovering from an early spin and were followed home by the sister #80 Artura of American Ron Trenka and Brit Jon Lancaster, which did likewise; Leeds racer Jon setting the fastest lap.
Ron and Jon, having only their second event in the Artura, were eighth on Sunday following an electrical issue; Jon creating one of the highlights of the race as he went three-wide through Turn Four early on to pick up a couple of spots on a charge that took him to third before the pitstops.
While Greystone GT’s title-winning campaign is at an end, three more events remain in 2023 with the GT Cup finale at Snetterton this weekend and both the last round of the British GT Championship and the International GT Open later this month.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s a very proud day for Greystone GT as we take our first major championship title in only our third year of racing. I’d like to congratulate everybody that’s worked on this programme for their effort this season and hope that they’ll all be extremely proud of what they’ve achieved. It’s a weekend of mixed feelings though. As proud as I am of the effort everybody’s put in, I’m gutted for Rafa and Jem to miss out on the 570S Trophy title in the way they did. Motorsport can be cruel sometimes and they didn’t deserve that. This has been an excellent series to be a part of in 2023 and we hope to see it go from strength to strength as we make our plans for 2024.”
