« I was washing my car when I got a call and was told I’m the 200th driver to win a GT Open race. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool!’” Zac Meakin seems pretty happy with the statistics, which adds to the satisfaction of having conquered his maiden GT Open win in Race 2 at Portimão, sharing the Greystone GT McLaren with Dean Macdonald, for whom it was his fourth personal success in the series.
Being the 200th different driver to win a GT Open race means, of course, that some water has run under the bridges of motorsport history before Zac joined the series. Truth is that Zac wasn’t even born when the GT Open kicked off on 1st April 2006, a few months before the stork delivered little Zac on 18th December.
Meakin is enjoying the sweet moment and … and visiting Portugal. Earlier this year, he won the Portimão 6 Hours together with Louis Prette and Jayden Kelly, and in a couple of months, he will leave another exciting moment to live for any GT driver: his first participation in the Spa 24 Hours. His GT career, always at the wheel of McLarens, first with Optimum Motorsport and now with Greystone GT, started in the British GT in 2024 before joining the GT Open, “the logical step to go international”, in 2025, finishing eighth overall together with Mike Porter and clinching three seconds as best finishes.
“The GT Open is a really good championship, very competitive and with close racing, I’m not sure people realize how tough it is”, he says. The mid-term objective is to become a factory driver. In the meantime, I’m completely focused on the GT Open, and we’ll do everything to be among those who’ll be fighting for the title.”
“I’ll try to keep the number of race winners at 200”, he adds jokingly. That may prove too much for a challenge, but now that the ice is broken, no doubt that Meakin is ready to add more wins to his count. For sure, he will continue to proudly defend his double flag: born in the UK to a British father and a Ukrainian mother, Zak spent his childhood in Odesa, is perfectly bilingual, and given the sad circumstances we all know, feels a particularly strong bond with his other homeland.
