Colin Queen Races To Top 10 Finish On GB3 Return To Silverstone
Rising American motorsport star Colin Queen added another top 10 finish to his growing GB3 Championship points tally at Silverstone last weekend (27/28 July).
The Floridian hoped to continue a strong run of recent form in his second visit to the historic British Grand Prix circuit of the year, following on from his best GB3 finish of fourth last time out at Zandvoort.
Backed by ONE Sotheby's International Realty on the #62 Fortec car, Queen entered the Northampton circuit optimistic after two solid days of testing across Thursday and Friday, ahead of a crucial Saturday Qualifying session.
The 19-year-old set his sights on securing a good grid slot for the weekend’s three short sprint races at the Home of British Motorsport that morning, and was quick out of the traps on his opening run. The initial laps were good enough to put Queen comfortably inside the top eight for the opening two races, but it would be the second runs where the faster laps were ultimately clocked.
Queen would be only 0.9s away from the best times in 15th, with his tyres not switching on enough to jump him up the grid. Later that afternoon, he started from row eight for race one looking to repeat his superb comeback drives from the previous three meetings once again.
It would be another case of Queen demonstrating his and Fortec Motorsport’s race pace. The American was dialed in and climbed to 11th with some daring moves in the early laps, before a safety car slowed the field. On the restart, Queen’s best move came when he braved it around the outside of Nikita Johnson through the high-speed Chapel kink, moving up six spots from his starting spot to finish ninth.
Again having to recover from 15th in race two, Queen battled his way up to 13th in the early going. Unfortunately in his quest to gain further ground, he was eased out in battles with Seb Murray and then James Wharton, only to finish with a spin after contact at Stowe from the front wheel of Flynn Jackes in the dying stages.
Again from 15th on the grid, Queen threatened another charge through the pack and sent a brilliant double overtake at Stowe around the outside in a three-abreast battle with Wharton and Will Macintyre. After a race-long fight among a big pack of cars fighting over seventh place, Queen recorded 13th place at the chequered flag.
Colin Queen: “It was a bit wild out there but in the final race we just managed to settle it down after the safety car restart, and it wasn’t a bad way to end the weekend. The one part of our weekend that cost us was the second run in Qualifying. The race pace is really good and has been all season, but once we dial in during that Qualifying then I think we’ll really show people what we’re capable of.
“We were fighting forward in every race and I knew we were quicker than a lot of the boys in front of us from where we started, but it was just one of those weekends where you learn a bit about your performance and go from there.”
The American next heads to Donington Park for the penultimate GB3 Championship event of the year, across the weekend of 7/8 September.
Image credits: Mat Acton Photography