Fortec Motorsport took an 11th podium finish of the season in the GB4 Championship partnered with the BRDC at a rain-hit Silverstone last weekend [29-30 July].
The Daventry team made the short trip to the 3.6-mile Northamptonshire venue in search of a first victory of the campaign, after several recent near-misses.
Strong pace in pre-event testing translated over to qualifying, with Colin Queen landing himself a front row start in second. Team-mates Ruhaan Alva and Aditya Kulkarni cemented the team’s promise, rounding out a season-best team qualifying effort in P6 and P7 respectively.
Queen made a superb start in the opening contest, and the US rising star briefly led through Copse corner. Hanging it around the outside of pole-sitter Tom Mills through the high-speed Maggots and Becketts complex, a momentary slide put the 18-year-old out of shape, and he dropped back to third.
Despite keeping the pressure on second-placed Liam McNeilly for the remainder of the race, a risk-free opportunity to pass never arrived, and Queen was forced to settle for the final spot on the rostrum.
Alva and Kulkarni banked a good haul of points in sixth and seventh, the pair continuing to make up for a relative lack of pre-season testing with a series of superb performances in race trim.
Race two on Sunday morning nearly brought about a twelfth visit to the rostrum, but Queen fell narrowly short in fourth. Alva improved one spot to follow him home in fifth, with Kulkarni banking another strong seventh-placed finish.
The trio looked ahead with optimism to Sunday afternoon’s reverse grid contest, typically a part of the weekend in which Fortec’s young charges have excelled so far in 2023.
However, inclement weather ultimately cancelled the race, with heavy rainfall at Silverstone severely reducing visibility, and track conditions were deemed unsafe to stage the race.
As a result of the two races held, Fortec have cemented their second-place spot in the Teams standings, edging a few further points ahead of third-placed Fox Motorsport.
Brands Hatch’s iconic GP circuit hosts the next three rounds of the championship on 8-9 September, 2023.
Aditya Kulkarni (#15) said:
“It’s been a pretty average weekend for me, to be honest, but we’ve moved up to fifth place in the championship, which is definitely a positive to take away.
“It was a shame to have race three cancelled, but it what it is. We now look ahead to Brands GP, and to being even more competitive there.”
Ruhaan Alva (#27) said:
“Overall, I’m happy, I think this has been a good weekend for us. I started P6 in qualifying, and felt the pace across the races was decent this weekend.
“In race two, I was able to fight closely with Colin for P4, so it’s a shame that race three was cancelled, I think we could have done very well and fought for a podium, or maybe the win. But it’s tough luck, and we’ll move on to Brands.”
Colin Queen (#62) said:
“After struggling with setup gremlins in testing Thursday and Friday, we finally found the setup needed to put the car up on the front row… which we did. I knew I had to take the fight to Tom immediately by taking the lead but as we were running side-by side through Maggots and Becketts the car stepped out mid corner dropping me back. The end result was another podium.”
“It’s disappointing that race 2 ended under the safety car as I was making my way up front. Clearly, we were fast even in traffic.”
“We didn’t get the results we wanted but we did work together as a team to make great progress. I’m excited to see what we can do at Brands Hatch.”
“Unfortunately, race 3 was cancelled due to the weather and track conditions but I’m glad they did for safety’s sake. After speaking with some of the GB3 drivers they said it was horrible and visibility was zero. MSV and the stewards made the right call.”
Oliver Dutton, Team Principal said:
“It’s another good haul of points for the boys in GB4, and as with GB3, had we held that last race, I suspect we’d have a little bit more to celebrate than we do.
“As it is, the guys can be very happy with qualifying – it was probably our strongest team showing across the board, and definitely set us up for the points we banked in races one and two.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good position to take second in the Teams standings now, hopefully that gives everybody a little bit of confidence to go on to Brands, take a few more risks, and see if we can’t pick up that elusive win.
“Thanks to the whole team for their hard work and effort over the weekend.”
