Greystone GT will return to the GT4 European Series this year as technical partners to the newly-established RAFA Racing Team with a line-up full of championship-winning drivers.
RAFA Racing Club founder Rafael ‘Rafa’ Martinez, who has now established the RAFA Racing Team identity, will spearhead the two-car line-up of McLaren Artura GT4 race cars in the intensely competitive series, which gets underway at Circuit Paul Ricard, France on April 5-7.
El Salvador-born Rafa, who is now based in Houston, USA, began racing last year and impressively teamed up with Jem Hepworth and Greystone GT to finish third in the McLaren Trophy’s 570S class; winning at Hockenheim.
He founded the RAFA Racing Club to create a community for supercar trackday enthusiasts in the Texas and wider area and has since began working on a number of non-profit schemes to promote diversity and inclusion in business and sport.
His co-driver in the Pro-Am class will be experienced professional and long-time Greystone GT racer Jon Lancaster; the British driver having won the European Le Mans Series overall in 2015 and scored high-level single-seater wins in the GP2 Series and F3 Euro Series.
Jem became the first female competitor in the McLaren Trophy last year as she partnered Rafa. She won the British Endurance Championship in 2020 and added several victories in the Praga Cup in 2021-22.
She will contest the Silver category with Texas-based Cameron Lawrence, a two-time Trans-Am champion and the 2015 North American Endurance title winner. He has also taken class wins at the legendary Daytona 24 Hours and 6 Hours of Watkins Glen sportscar races.
The RAFA Racing Team’s pair of McLaren Artura GT4 cars will be prepared and operated from Greystone GT’s Silverstone headquarters in the UK for the six-round series.
Mark McLoughlin, Greystone GT Team Principal, said: “We’re delighted to continue our technical partnership with RAFA Racing Team after a successful debut campaign together in 2023. Our philosophy has always been to help trackday enthusiasts follow their dream of becoming fully-fledged racing drivers and RAFA Racing Club follows much the same idea. To have helped Rafa through his debut season of racing and now to see him stepping up to the next level of competition, we’re upholding our commitment to what we set out to achieve. We certainly have unfinished business in the GT4 European Series and will be out testing soon with both crews so we can hit the ground running when we reach Paul Ricard in April.”
