Colin Queen Puts On Top-Three GB3 Display At Donington Park
American motorsport star Colin Queen showed strong pace, but was denied his first GB3 Championship podium in harsh circumstances at Donington Park (7/8 September).
The Floridian arrived in East Midlands for the seventh round of eight in his rookie GB3 Championship campaign looking to challenge his best result of fourth place from Zandvoort earlier in the summer.
Backed by ONE Sotheby's International Realty on the #62 Fortec car, the 19-year-old travelled to the full-length Donington Park GP circuit, which he held the fastest lap from a year ago in GB4 alongside five visits to the podium.
Queen immediately showed promising pace across two days of testing leading up to the weekend, held in mixed conditions which soon became a trend of the event. A 20-minute Qualifying session on Saturday morning marked the start of the weekend’s serious on-track action, with tricky conditions underfoot after morning showers persisted. Throughout the session, Queen shone in the mist as he squeezed his Fortec car up to as high as fourth place before a red flag stymied his chances of improving late on - Queen finishing just 0.6s adrift in ninth but with more pace to burn.
It meant he would start the first of the weekend’s three Sprint races from row five of the grid, under drier conditions thankfully. A great start propelled the American up to eighth, but the wet patches soon caught out many drivers straying offline. Grassy moments at Old Hairpin for Queen ultimately limited him to an unrepresentative 19th place finish.
Queen looked to recover on Sunday, starting race two from eighth place on the grid on a much wetter surface than the previous day. Wet tyres were the correct call, and Queen enjoyed a much more entertaining contest as he went on the attack of John Bennett in the early laps. Overtaking proved difficult in high-downforce GB3 machinery, Queen almost going around the outside of the Brit but maintaining eighth place until the chequered flag.
More points bagged, Queen hoped to add to that as he turned his attentions to the third race of the weekend, where he started from a much higher fourth place on the grid. A great start moved him into the podium places as he braved it around the outside of two rivals at Redgate, fending off Will Macintyre in the early stages.
Bagging the fastest lap on four separate occasions during the 17-lapper, Queen kept within two seconds of the leaders and looked to have claimed an exceptional maiden GB3 podium in third place. Unfortunately, he was one of many drivers slapped with a time penalty in relation to track limits offences, dropping him to eighth in the final results.
Colin Queen: “All in all, we showed a lot of good speed this weekend which is the main item to take away from Donington. In the wet and the dry, we looked fast and we were always around the pace of the top and more experienced guys. We got unlucky with the red flags in Qualifying when on times it looked like we could have been right up towards the front, but we did enough to be in the running for the podium right at the end on Sunday.
“We were pinged for track limits in the end which took our third place away, but it is what it is. We can take the positives that we’re fast, and we’re coming on strong in the latter part of the season. I’m looking forward to Brands now and hope we can finish the year in style.”
With optimism from his speed at Donington Park, the American’s GB3 season comes to an end next time out at Brands Hatch GP circuit over the weekend of 28/29 September.
Images: Mat Acton Photography