{"id":8076,"date":"2025-05-01T16:38:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8076"},"modified":"2025-05-03T16:40:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T20:40:04","slug":"forward-progress-continues-for-pt-autosports-hollingshead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/forward-progress-continues-for-pt-autosports-hollingshead\/","title":{"rendered":"Forward progress continues for PT Autosport\u2019s Hollingshead"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2024 Aspiring Driver Shootout winner brings home a pair of solid finishes in two rough and tumble Toyota GR Cup races at COTA<\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas (May 1,\u00a02025) \u2013 PT Autosport with Copeland Motorsports\u2019 Zach Hollingshead continued his Toyota GR Cup series learning curve last weekend, with the series rookie capturing a 12th and a 13th place finish in two races at Circuit of the Americas.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Florida native survived two typically hard-fought GR Cup races behind the wheel of the No. 88 PT Autosport Toyota GR86 Cup Car, with each 45-minute contest filled with nonstop action throughout the 31-car field.<\/p>\n

Hollingshead\u2019s race weekend started slowly, as he attempted to learn a new racetrack while also working on car setup. A miscommunication among the team limited his running Thursday\u2019s two test sessions, but a P10 in the second of two official practices on Friday \u2013 despite a track limits penalty that cost him his quick lap \u2013 showed his potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough start to the weekend,\u201d said Hollingshead. \u201cBut the team came back strong. They spent hours on my car on Friday, on the setup pad and with the engineers, so we were able to recover by FP2. The car was really good for FP2 but unfortunately, I lost my fast lap then the red limited my ability to get that back. But I\u2019ve put all that behind me \u2013 the car is great and we\u2019re hoping to be even faster on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding traffic throughout qualifying, Hollingshead started race one a disappointed P18. As the field came to the green flag later that afternoon, two simultaneous occurrences prevented a race start: one of the leaders began emitting a significant amount of smoke, while mid-field, two cars came together. With the field still in a bit of chaos, the race began in earnest on the next lap, with Hollingshead settling in quickly and battling not only traffic but a heat index nearing 90F.<\/p>\n

By lap six, he had gained two positions into 16th \u2013 and on lap 8, Hollingshead put his No. 88 Toyota GR86 to the outside of two cars going up the front straight, with the trio battling hard and exchanging positions throughout the lap, with Hollingshead coming out in 15th. A late race caution bunched up the field, giving Hollingshead the chance to set up a move, taking 13th with nine minutes remaining. At the checkered flag, he had moved into 12th position, knowing there was more in himself and in the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cBit of a rough day,\u201d said Hollingshead. \u201cI made up some spots but top 12 isn\u2019t ideal. We\u2019re always shooting higher but sometimes that\u2019s the way it plays out. It was chaotic from the start, but I had good pace, and I think I could have been fighting for a top 10 \u2013 but the drivers around me were racing aggressively for 15th place, which made it tough to move forward. I really feel as though, if I\u2019d been able to get clear track, I had the pace to run some good laps and chase those guys down, but that’s just the way it ended up. But I\u2019m happy with the level I\u2019m driving at so we\u2019ll get at it again tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Setting his quickest lap of the weekend in race two qualifying Sunday morning (2:28.727), Hollingshead started 17th and quickly set about gaining positions, moving into 15th by the end of lap one. Leading a train of five cars, Hollingshead battled hard but fell back to 17th. A mid-race yellow bunched up the field and on the green, he retook those two positions. A late race caution left Hollingshead only six minutes to make a move \u2013 which he promptly did, taking the checkered flag in 13th position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some really aggressive racing out there, I was glad to come away with only a little bit of damage,\u201d said Hollingshead. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the pace to get away, we just missed the mark a bit on setup. The heat affected things as well, especially in Saturday\u2019s race. It was super, super hot \u2013 and these cars get extremely hot as well. Sunday wasn\u2019t as bad but it was draining. So I\u2019m glad to come away with a couple of decent finishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up for PT Autosport with Copeland Motorsports will be the Toyota GR Cup doubleheader at Sebring International Raceway, May 16 to 18. The pair of 45-minute races will be broadcast live at\u00a0www.grcup.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2024 Aspiring Driver Shootout winner brings home a pair of solid finishes in two rough and tumble Toyota GR Cup races at COTA AUSTIN, Texas [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pt-autosport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8078,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8076\/revisions\/8078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}