Colin Queen Scores Silverstone Points On Wet GB3 Weekend
American motorsport star Colin Queen again showed strong pace, but poor weather prevented him from silverware at the famous Silverstone Grand Prix circuit last weekend (27/28 April).
After a strong start to the GB3 Championship season at Oulton Park, the Floridian hoped to continue to shine in the second round held at the Home of British Motorsport in Northampton - Silverstone’s GP circuit.
Backed by ONE Sotheby's International Realty on the #62 Fortec car, the 19-year-old travelled to the popular Formula 1 track looking to score more important points after running with the frontrunners during a wet and wild first meeting in April.
With testing miles at Silverstone already in his locker from pre-season, Queen came out of the blocks fighting hard with competitive times during two more days of testing with his Fortec Motorsport team leading up to the weekend, again inside the top 10 on pace.
Signs looked promising for Saturday, while the weather became unpredictable with showers coming and going during the morning ahead of Qualifying. When the 20-minute timed session came around, Queen was once again strong in battling the conditions as he put his car 11th on the 22-car grid with two quick laps.
It meant he would start the first of the weekend’s three short 10-lap races from row six of the grid, under drier conditions thankfully. An intense opening lap was affected by a jump-starting Arthur Rogeon who was later penalised for his mistake, Queen fighting almost into the top 10. He would unfortunately be eased wide at the Village hairpin by Martinius Stenshorne which put him down to his eventual finishing position of 13th, beating more experience compatriot Shawn Rashid in the process.
A deleted lap time in Qualifying affected Queen’s starting position for race two the following morning - starting an unrepresentative 18th rather than as high as ninth based on driver’s second best times. What followed was torrential rain in the morning, meaning that the race was ultimately moved to the afternoon and race three called off completely.
Under drier conditions, Queen fought hard in the pack looking to make up ground, and despite contact from an aggressive Stenshorne once again costing him time unnecessarily at Luffield, Queen improved to 16th with some exciting overtaking in the closing laps of the race including an around-the-outside pass on team-mate Ed Pearson.
Frustratingly, Queen would have started from the front row of the final race that was cancelled, but it is set to potentially be re-run when the series visits Silverstone for a second time in July - keeping his silverware hopes very much alive.
Colin Queen: “It was a frustrating way for the weekend to play out for us in the end. We could have been starting from the front row but the weather put a stop to that. The good news is that we get to do that race later in the season it seems, which should be a great chance for us to get the results we want on a hopefully much drier day than it was here. Our pace in Qualifying and testing was really good which is another step forward for us, so we know the pace is there.
“I’m going to relax and recover in Florida before we go to Spa next. It’s an awesome circuit so I’m really looking forward to that.”
The American next heads across into Europe for the next three races of the season at the famous Spa-Francorchamps F1 circuit in Belgian across the weekend of 1/2 June.
Photo: Mat Acton Photography