BEST BENTLEY DRIVES: PAUL WILLIAMS

In our latest feature series, Best Bentley Drives, we asked a number of key members of the Bentley team to share their most memorable drives with us.

In this feature, we go back to the debut of the GT3 for Bentley’s return to motorsport with Director of Motorsport, Paul Williams:

“My best ever Bentley drive was from Brooklands, across Europe, to Milan – finishing off at the race circuit Monza, in April 2014. We were there to watch the three-hour GT3 race on the Sunday, which was the first race of the Bentley brand’s return to competitive racing.

“Starting at Brooklands, we met with some journalists who would accompany us on the drive to Milan. I had the chance to experience the 1929 Bentley ‘Old Number One’ around some of the old banking and for some photos with the Continental GT Speed.

“We started our journey from Brooklands down to The Channel Tunnel, across France and Switzerland and then down to Milan.  A two-day, proper Grand Touring experience in the latest Bentley Continental GT Speed, the car was just amazing and the journalists loved it.

“To embark on such a journey, knowing at the end of it there will be Bentley’s on the grid for the first competitive race in the Blancpain GT3 Series at Monza, was a great experience.

“Despite a crash in qualifying, meaning an overnight rebuild of the car, we made a good, not quite great, performance in the race finishing 7th and 8th.

“A memorable point from the weekend was a particular group of Ferrari fans loving the Bentleys!”