Beechdean AMR’s Paul Hollywood has said he’s feeling confident ahead of tomorrow’s two one-hour British GT Championship races at Snetterton, following a strong qualifying session.
Qualifying 11th for the first race, the Great British Bake Off judge was making marked improvements throughout the day gaining speed every time he sat in the Aston Martin Vantage GT4.
After the session – where teammate Jamie Chadwick qualified eighth for the second race – where the cars are started by the Pro drivers – The Checkered Flag caught up with Hollywood to see how just his second British GT qualifying session went.
He said: “I’m really happy actually, I think I got down to 2:01 which is good because I think I started the day on 2:04s so I’ve knocked a few seconds off!”
Of course, he was quick to point out that the GT4 class doesn’t just feature Pro-Am line-ups but Silver Cup entries as well, so he was being careful on how he judged his progress: “I have to look at the other Ams as well in the same class so I think I’m mid-station for the race and I’m happy with that because a lot of the guys are silver/silver so it’s a bit unbalanced but I have to look at all the other Ams like me and then I’ll judge it against that!”
For Hollywood, this is an ever so slightly more relaxed session than at Spa-Francorchamps where there were more than 60 cars on the grid, and a significant number of GT4 European Series entries with all-Pro crews: “There was so many of them! You never knew quite what was going on, but it’s all about taking it nice and steady. But I really enjoyed that session [at Snetterton].
However, the next objective isn’t looking back on Spa but ahead to the two races at Snetterton, and the Britcar race winner is ready for the off: “I’m looking forward to the race actually because I like Snetterton and it’s one of my favourite tracks. Coming round to Murrays is quite tricky, around the Bombhole it’s quite tricky but it’s about confidence and I’m building it up – I’m getting there slowly but surely!”
