Greystone GT made history last weekend by dominating the inaugural McLaren Trophy weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard in France and claiming a double race win plus four other podium finishes.
Meanwhile in the GT Cup at Snetterton Phillip Carter and Michael Broadhurst were cruelly robbed of a maiden class win together due to a mechanical issue on the last lap of the weekend after the pair had dominated the afternoon event.
McLaren Trophy
Mark Hopton and Euan Hankey emerged triumphant in both races aboard their Artura Trophy car after a pair of thrilling inter-team battles with the sister machine of Iain Campbell and Oli Webb were ended by punctures for the latter duo.
Iain hit the front of Race One before half-distance and led into the mandatory driver changes, only for Pro co-driver Oli to suffer a puncture that left him unable to hold off Euan, and then put him out altogether.
It was Euan – who won by 9.305s on Saturday – who led into the pitstops in Race Two, but with seven ‘success’ seconds added to his stop time as a result of the victory, co-driver Mark emerged behind Iain with half the race remaining.
While Derby racer Mark – the early series leader – became embroiled in a three-way battle for victory that he won, Iain was not part of it as another puncture caused a spin and retirement in the pits before two-thirds distance.
In the 570S class there were double podiums for both the RAFA Racing Club-entered car of American Rafa Martinez and Briton Jem Hepworth and for another US-UK pairing, Ron Trenka and Jon Lancaster.
Jon had brilliantly climbed from seventh to second during Race Two and Ron completed a double podium in the Pro-Am class, having been overhauled by Rafa towards the end.
Next up were South African duo Shaun Pendrigh and Stuart White, who missed Saturday’s action due to an engine issue that sidelined their car.
They were able to race on Sunday thanks to hard graft by the team, who drove a spare car – made available by David Waddington and Inari Motorsport – from the UK overnight and then prepared it for action.
GT Cup
Phillip Carter and Michael Broadhurst were within two corners of a maiden win in the GTH class at Snetterton when fate intervened and relegated their McLaren 570S GT4 to second place on Sunday.
Having set the fastest lap in the class for the first time in his career on his way to sixth in the earlier Sprint Race, York-based Phillip started the 50-minute Pitstop Race from pole position and was untroubled at the front during his stint.
His Pro co-driver Michael stayed ahead, but was forced to ease his pace as a broken wheelnut caused a handling issue at the rear of the car, leaving it impossible to drive on the limit.
Michael drove magnificently to stay ahead of the chasing pack until the penultimate corner on the last lap when the loose wheel caused him to run wide at Coram corner and cede the lead. He finished second to equal Phillip’s best career result – just 0.394s from victory.
The duo’s hopes of winning Saturday’s Pitstop Race were thwarted when Phillip – running third – was hit and spun by a quicker GT3 car that was lapping him. He and Michael were fourth while Phillip drove solo to fourth in the earlier Sprint Race. They are fifth in the points.
Andrey Borodin and Ed Pead took part in the Sunday races; the former showing much-improved pace at Snetterton and running on the edge of the top six in the GT3 class all day with laptimes far closer to the front of the field than on their previous visits to Snetterton.
An unfortunate spin late in the Sprint Race while challenging for sixth relegated the British GT class podium finisher to eighth while in the Pitstop Race he and Pro co-driver Ed were seventh.
The GT Cup continues at Oulton Park on July 1 while the McLaren Trophy resumes on the same weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s been an incredible start to the McLaren Trophy for us with two wins for Mark and Euan plus double podiums for Ron and Jon and for Rafa and Jem as all our drivers showed strong pace throughout the weekend. It’s so disappointing for Iain and Oli to suffer punctures in both races because in speed terms they were contenders for both wins as well. Shaun and Stuart’s engine issue was frustrating, but I have to say an enormous thank you the members of our team who moved heaven and earth to get the replacement McLaren from the UK at short notice and to David Waddington and Inari Motorsport for letting us borrow their spare car. Phillip and Michael were moral winners at Snetterton for a second year in a row, but the way they lost the Pitstop Race – through no fault of their own – was especially disappointing. But Phillip can be very proud of his first fastest lap and Andrey can be very pleased to have shown probably his best pace to date in the GT Cup.”
