Fortec Motorsport’s Colin Queen enjoyed a strong debut GB4 race, fighting with the race leaders throughout and taking fourth, despite picking up damage midway through the contest.
The 17-year-old qualified in fourth place, and held that position throughout, despite constantly having to defend from behind, while also looking to attack the podium trio ahead of him.
“The start could have been a bit better with my reaction time, I was literally just focusing on getting the start done properly,” he said. “I was looking to cover McNeilly on the inside at turn one and just got into a rhythm after that. It was quite hectic, especially with the battle with Tom and Jeremy up front. It was quite something, I thought they were going to take each other out.”
Fourth was a strong net result, when considering he was battling with a hobbled car for much of the race.
“For me it was difficult because I was dealing with a broken steering column. Up at Druids I got a little airborne and the whole race after that I had to deal with it.
“The bolt snapped so it felt like the wheel was going in a circle and it was quite physical to say the least, but I tried my best. I’m glad I had the pace to keep up at the front despite that.
“We definitely had more pace than in qualifying and we showed that in the race. Going into Monday, it looks like it’ll be wet so we went on the new tyres to get the most of them in the first race and we’ll see how it goes from here.”
Queen is confident that he will be able to fight for the title, and predicts a tough fight with his rivals.
“With Cooper [Webster], Tom [Mills], Jeremy [Fairbairn] and me it looks like it’s going to be a close championship and I know we’re definitely in the hunt for that. The team has been great throughout the pre-season testing and have helped me to get up to speed out of Formula Ford and learning all these new techniques. I think we’re almost there but there’s a little bit more pace I need to find.”
