Bake Off's Paul Hollywood makes GT racing debut

Bakery's biggest star Paul Hollywood has announced his move into motorsport after competing in his debut race for Beechdean AMR and now as eyes at ultimately competing at Le Mans.

Hollywood, best known from BBC's smash-hit The Great British Bake Off, contested his first-ever motorsport race in the Britcar Sports and Touring car Championship at Silverstone, co-driving in the Beechdean GT4 alongside 2013 British GT champion Andrew Howard. The pair finished a creditable second in both races and fourth place in the overall classification.

The TV baker called the experience a lifelong dream and is already looking for his racing return at Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and possibly culminating at the Le Mans Festival.

"I thought baking was difficult to learn, but racing takes it to a whole new level," Hollywood said. "I hoped that I'd be a natural and that it would be intuitive but I've really had to work for it. It's been no piece of cake!"

Co-driver and mentor Andrew Howard was thoroughly impressed by Hollywood's knowledge and understanding of racing and feels the TV personality will be more than capable of progressing through the ranks to one day compete in the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

"Paul's enthusiasm for cars and racing comes across strongly," Howard said. "Once he was behind the wheel, it quickly became apparent that he is a focused racing driver and has the talent to race a car.

"The aim is to take Paul through various categories of competitive racing, from GT4, GT3 through to GTE and then, backing dependent, on to the big prize; the time we've spent together on the track and his first race performance suggest that this is attainable.

"There'll be more to come from Paul so watch this space."