Balfe Motorsport’s McLaren Customer racing season got underway this weekend at Donington Park, with the opening four rounds of the GT Cup Championship. Stewart and Lewis Proctor teamed up together in the #36 McLaren 720S GT3, while Mike Price and Callum MacLeod paired up in the #90 McLaren 570S GT4.
Both sides of the garage enjoyed their fair of success, with the team leaving the Leicestershire circuit satisfied with Saturday’s double podium position, plus the gains made over the race weekend in readiness for the season ahead.
With an impressive 37-car grid, the opening round of the Championship saw Stewart claim a solid fifth position in the Saturday Sprint event. The subsequent Pitstop race brought a great opening stint, vaulting him from seventh on the grid to fourth position. As the Safety Car emerged, he pitted and handed over to Lewis in a fine second position.
The racing resumed, and with the leader out of reach, Lewis kept his head down and extended the gap to those behind to take the chequered flag in second, with a comfortable five-second margin to boot. It was a fine debut for the Father-and-Son partnership, also providing McLaren with a GT3 debut in the GT Cup series.
Mike meanwhile also finished in fifth position in the Sprint event, and together with Callum, put in an impressive debut performance together in the distinctive GT4 to finish in third position. Given it was Mike’s first race meeting in the 570S, and with such a large GTH contingent, the result was particularly impressive.
Rounds three and four took place on in especially cold, and at times wintery, conditions on Sunday. Again, the Sprint race saw the Amateur racers qualifying and complete the 25-minute race.
Unfortunately for Stewart, a near-certain fourth position was denied by a left rear puncture two laps from home after an impressive run. Mike meanwhile had made changes to the GT4s setup, running stiffer springs in the race, but on this occasion was unable to make such large gains and had to be content with ninth position. Gains would soon however come his way.
With 15- and ten-seconds success time penalties for Stewart / Lewis and Mike / Callum, Sunday’s Pitstop race was always going to be a real challenge but nevertheless, Stewart and Lewis enjoyed another competitive showing to finish in fifth position; capping off an eventful, yet rewarding weekend as a whole.
Sunday’s finale yielded Mike’s strongest showing of the weekend. Having gone back on the earlier setup changes, he made great gains, moving from 30th on the overall grid to 20th by the end of his stint. Ultimately, the timing of the Safety Car, combined with the success time penalty made Callum’s task all but impossible to replicate Saturday’s result, but it was a positive and confidence-boosting fourth round of the Championship for the series rookie.
Balfe Motorsport leaves Donington Park content with the progress made and its first GT Cup silverware of the season. Preparations for the second round of the championship, which takes place at Brands Hatch on May 1st, are now underway. |
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STEWART PROCTOR #36 McLaren 720S GT3
“A really good weekend for me with a lot of track time in the 720S. The final race was tough with the pitstop success time penalty, but we had a good, clean run all weekend and we leave Donington pleased with what we have learned over the weekend as a whole.” |
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LEWIS PROCTOR #36 McLaren 720S GT3
“There has been lots to learn, getting used to setup as well as the format of this new Championship, especially dealing with the large grid and the inevitable traffic generated in this type of multi-category series. For me, it was good to blow the cobwebs off and to get back into the race weekend rhythm.
“As the Pro-driver, my running was relatively limited and this is something I need to get used to in this series as I don’t get a lot of track time, so it’s a case of maximising my learnings every time I’m on track. Overall, we all really enjoyed it, it was good; the weather stayed consistent, even if I was actually hoping for some rain just to mix it up a bit! We take a lot away from this event.” |
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MIKE PRICE, #90 McLaren 570S GT4
“The final race today was the highlight for me, even though we had to carry the success penalty after the third-place finish on Saturday. Today though was much better; the cars I needed to get passed in order to make progression up the field, I approached it in a much more professional way following a chat with Callum as to how best to approach the race.
“We’ve learned a lot about the car and I have certainly learned some handling characteristics of the McLaren, so it has been very good!” |
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CALLUM MACLEOD, #90 McLaren 570S GT4
“For me, it has been a fantastic weekend as Mike has to experience many many scenarios that he is going to face in his future GT career. I think with 37 cars with varying speeds and abilities has made it more intense than we actually expected after looking at the championship last year. It made it more difficult certainly, but more rewarding after seeing over such a short space of time that Mike has developed his awareness of cars approaching him, where to position the car and many other factors.
“It’s a good initial step and obviously getting a podium yesterday was special in making it a nice start in GT Cup.” |
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