Greystone GT picked up where they left off at the end of 2023 as the Silverstone-based organisation began the defence of their McLaren Trophy Europe Teams’ title with a double win at the Misano season-opener.
Newcomer Ryan James and long-time Greystone GT professional racer Oli Webb were in a class of their own in Italy while Ron Trenka and Duncan Tappy also showed their mettle in a hard-fought pair of races.
With best-ever qualifying and race results for the Greystone GT-supported RAFA Racing Team in the GT4 European Series, it was a weekend of many highs.
McLaren Trophy Europe
Competing in the 570S Trophy, American Ryan and Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 podium finisher Oli were unchallenged en route to a double success in Italy.
After missing Saturday qualifying due to a technical issue, Ryan had to start from the back of the pack, but he and Oli were able to lap at the pace of some of the newer, more powerful Arturas, such was their pace on the twisty circuit.
The result was a commanding class win and the duo repeated the result – this time from pole position – on Sunday to leave Misano with a healthy series lead.
American Ron Trenka, partnered this year by professional racer Duncan Tappy, set his fastest laps to date at Misano during practice and qualifying and put his McLaren eighth and ninth on the Artura Trophy class grid for the two races.
Improving their pace as they went along – despite Duncan sustaining right-side damage in Race Two – they finished sixth and eighth.
GT4 European Series
As technical partners to the RAFA Racing Team, Greystone GT were responsible for a pair of McLaren Artura GT4s, and equalled the best Pro-Am class result achieved by the Silverstone-based outfit.
Rafa Martinez and Jon Lancaster – the latter setting a best lap just 0.15 seconds away from the fastest in the class – battled hard in Sunday’s second race to fifth place in the category, just 4.5 seconds away from a maiden podium finish.
Texas-based Rafa qualified a career-best 12th in class and completed a solid first stint before handing over to Jon, who ripped through the order, despite a Full-Course Yellow period with 20 minutes left costing him valuable green-flag running. The Anglo-American duo were ninth on Saturday.
The sister car had made headlines on Saturday morning when American Cameron Lawrence qualified second overall – another all-time team best in the series – and then came home 13th in the Silver Cup in Race One as British co-driver Jem Hepworth scooped ‘Rookie of the Race’ honours.
Sadly, an alternator issue led to rapid repairs as the rest of the cars headed for the grid and a pitlane start. The car was retired in the opening minutes of the race.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “Obviously the target for 2024 was to defend our McLaren Trophy Europe Teams’ title and two wins for Oli and Ryan is a great start. The most pleasing thing is Ryan’s pace – faster than some of the Arturas – so while we didn’t have the competition we’d hoped for in the class, I’m pretty confident he'd have been right at the sharp end anyway. Ron and Duncan built as the weekend’s progressed with Ron’s start and his end-of-stint pace, in particular, very encouraging. They’ll be even stronger at Spa. To score our best overall qualifying and our best Pro-Am race result in a championship as tough as the GT4 European Series shows how quickly RAFA Racing Team are making progress with the Artura. Jem was Rookie of the Race, Jon was outstanding on Sunday, Rafa and Cameron all had their best qualifying results yet… We keep getting stronger and that’s always a good thing.”
