Greystone GT began the GT Cup season with a milestone result at Donington Park as Phillip Carter scored his maiden Sprint Race podium finish and his best-ever qualifying result.
Phillip and his pro co-driver Michael Broadhurst combined to finish inside the top six in the GTH category in each of the four races held in the East Midlands aboard their McLaren 570S GT4.
His impressive progress at the start of only his second season of racing was in evidence from the get-go as he set his fastest-ever lap of the Donington National layout on Saturday morning to qualify fifth in the GTH class.
The York racer matched that with a fifth-place finish in an exciting Sprint Race and set superb laptimes during the afternoon’s Pitstop Race, despite losing over a minute in the pits at the start while a suspected fluid leak was investigated.
His determination to stay the course was vindicated when the race was red-flagged at mid-distance and restarted – now with multiple GT Cup race winner Michael at the wheel – with 15 minutes to go.
The Northampton-based professional racer climbed the order to take the chequered flag in fifth spot.
If Saturday had gone well, Sunday was a step up again. Phillip matched the 2022 GTH class pole position time as he qualified a career-best fourth, just five hundredths of a second from the front row.
After running in the same spot comfortably, he then put a superb move on one of his chief rivals with five minutes of the Sprint Race left to snatch third place and a maiden solo podium finish to add to the four he scored with Michael in Pitstop races last year.
A sensational opening portion of the Pitstop Race featured a four-way breakaway group at the head of GTH with Phillip matching his three vastly more-experienced rivals for pace, but losing a handful of seconds while being lapped by the GT3 cars at the head of the field.
The second half of the race became a similarly close fight between a handful of GTH machines with Michael bringing the #14 McLaren home fourth in class.
That result put himself and Phillip fourth in the GTH points with the first of seven rounds complete. The next event takes place at Brands Hatch, Kent, on April 29-30.
Phillip Carter said: “This has been my best weekend yet in terms of my own driving and it was just excellent. I had some good, clean, racing with good competitors and that was so enjoyable. Getting the Sprint Race podium was great, but the whole weekend has given me a massive uplift in confidence. I’m not sure if it resets the target for the year, but I’ll just keep going, keep enjoying myself and race like hell to see what Michael and I can achieve. There was maybe a chance to take advantage of the close fighting and get into the lead in the Sunday Pitstop Race, but the two cars ahead of me were just racing so well. It was great to see and even better to be a part of.”
Michael Broadhurst said: “It’s been a strong weekend with Phillip’s first Sprint Race podium, but the biggest positive is his mentality this year. He’s more experienced, more comfortable in the car and he’s just getting stuck in and switching the pace on faster and faster every time he gets behind the wheel. His learning curve has been exponential and there’s still plenty to come. He deserved his Sprint Race podium and had his best-ever qualifying result. Things are really tight and we’re already trading over hundredths of a second in qualifying, so being able to drill down to the really fine detail is a great place to be. We want more podiums and a few wins this year.”
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “Phillip and Michael have marked themselves out as a pairing to watch in GTH this year. Phillip’s progress over the past year has been impressive and we saw the proof of that this weekend; best qualifying result, first Sprint Race podium, top job. Michael’s worked incredibly well with him and this is the result. We should have good pace at all the tracks this year and it’s exciting to think what we could achieve.”
