Greystone GT drivers Stewart and Lewis Proctor scored their best result in the International GT Open during a pair of chaotic races at Paul Ricard, while a busy weekend for the team also featured British GT Championship action in Portugal.
International GT Open
Father-and-son pair Stewart and Lewis Proctor were on fine form at Paul Ricard; the Aberdeen drivers continuing the recent gains first shown in Hungary.
Stewart qualified a best-ever ninth in Pro-Am on Saturday morning and produced an ultra-consistent race stint to hand over the reins to Lewis during the mid-race driver changes in 10th place.
Lewis stayed clear of trouble and consistently picked off his rivals, both in the Pro-Am class and overall, one by one as he climbed to sixth in the category by the end of the 70-minute race.
Securing his best grid spot to date as well with fifth on Sunday morning, Lewis gained ground after losing several spots at the start and was fifth in Pro-Am by the driver-changes.
Stewart was again controlled as he looked set for another top-six finish until he was hit from behind by a spinning rival, who had already been collected by another car at Turn Five. That dropped him to 12th, but he recovered to ninth by the flag.
British GT Championship
Portimao in Portugal was, for the first time, the destination for the series’ annual overseas round and provided a race every bit as hot as the track temperatures.
With Mike Price and Callum Macleod sitting out the Algarve event while they prepare for the next round at Brands Hatch, the team’s sole representative was the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Andrey Borodin and Oli Webb.
An engine issue in qualifying meant the team had to work through the night to fit a replacement unit. Seventh in Pro-Am in warm-up for Knutsford racer Oli was a solid reward for the crew he and Andrey then ran as high as ninth in class during the three-hour race.
Unfortunately a spin for Andrey and a 10-minute pitstop to replace a broken front wishbone removed any hopes of such a result. The pair recovered to 11th in Pro-Am.
Greystone GT are again in action this weekend as the GT Cup resumes at Silverstone while the McLaren Trophy will occupy the team’s efforts at the Nurburgring, Germany.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “It’s been a better weekend pace-wise in both series than we’ve seen recently from our GT3 McLarens and it’s satisfying to see Stewart and Lewis get their best qualifying and race results of the year in the GT Open, which is a clear indication that the work we’ve put in with them and with McLaren is paying off. Andrey is driving far more confidently than at any other point in his career and the way he put in a strong lap at the end of qualifying was extremely pleasing. He and Oli deserved a top-10 Pro-Am finish this weekend, so that’s the target for Brands Hatch.”
