Scott Malvern: "To come back and grab pole is pretty nice"

Team Parker Racing’s Scott Malvern said his tightly fought Intelligent Money British GT Championship pole position was a deserved turn around in fortune after the squad’s string of bad luck in recent rounds.

Racing alongside Nick Jones in a Porsche 911 GT3 R, there’s been flashes of speed from the pair as they continue to build their knowledge of the car. However, there’s been some tricky stretches in the season too.

That started with a crash in practice for the fly-away Spa-Francorchamps round, which necessitated an extensive rebuild for the car. The after-effects of the crash continued to be felt at Snetterton, where various technical gremlins seriously curtailed the pair’s efforts.

For Malvern, being able to bounce back and snatch pole by just 0.005sec over championship leader Dennis Lind is just reward from battling back from those lows.

He said: “It was great, it wasn’t the perfect lap from my side, small mistakes here and there, probably should have gone a little better but I’ll take it. I’m happy, plan for tomorrow is just to get head down.

“I crashed at Spa which wasn’t ideal, and then we had gremlins at Snetterton which were a knock-on of the crash. I obviously felt really bad for the team and for Nick especially because he puts in a lot of time and effort to do this. To come back and grab a pole is pretty nice.”

The pole position, for the second race of the weekend, also highlights the potential of the 911 GT3 R on British circuits, with Malvern also setting rapid times in practice around an Oulton Park Circuit characterised by twisty sections and major elevation changes.

“This car is very well suited to British GT, the circuits here – the direction changes – this is almost the perfect car for this circuit. Us and the Lambo are very similar concepts – and the McLaren – are all similar ideas. It’s a nice car to drive round here – it’s a lot of fun.” Malvern added.