- Pole and victory for Nikolas Taylor in brilliant visit to Leicester
- Fortec Motorsport just one point from leading Teams’ Championship
- Jessica Edgar shows her fighting spirit inside the top 10
Fortec Motorsport moved into the overall lead of the Drivers’ Championship, thanks to a fourth victory by Nikolas Taylor in the latest three races of the GB4 Championship partnered by BRDC at Donington Park GP last weekend (28/29 May).
Riding the highs of taking the top spot in the Teams’ Championship after two hard-fought triumphs at Silverstone earlier in the month, the Daventry squad headed to the 1.9-mile circuit in Leicester looking to add to their tally.
Leading the team’s two-car charge was Anglo-Malaysian teenager Taylor, who entered the meeting with three wins already to his name. He started in ominous fashion in pre-event testing, as he lowered the times to head the way on pace in the build-up to the weekend’s racing action.
After a positive start, Taylor kept up his strong momentum by setting the benchmark early on in qualifying. Trading the top spot with Megan Gilkes, Taylor’s last effort of 1m29.637s was good enough to seal pole position by 0.012s. Jessica Edgar qualified only a second further back in Fortec’s second car, narrowly missing the top 10 in her fourth single-seater outing.
Taylor made the most of his advantage when the lights went out to start the first race of the weekend later that afternoon, fending off title rival Alex Walker at Redgate and leading Max Marzorati around the opening lap. The former FIA F4 Development driver maintained his lead throughout, clinching a fourth win of the season by 0.3s in a closely-fought contest. Edgar meanwhile battled to get into the top 10, just missing out in 11th by the chequered flag.
Starting third for the second race of the weekend the following day, Taylor made an electric start as the lights went out to round pole-sitter Megan Gilkes at Redgate corner and grab the early lead. The pair battled it out in the first half of the race, Taylor losing out to his rival at the hairpin before settling into second spot to preserve tyres ahead of the final race of the weekend, Edgar finishing 12th.
Cumbrian rookie Edgar had a golden opportunity to add her best result of the meeting thanks to a reverse grid based on qualifying, which put her up the field in third while Taylor fought from 13th and last.
Edgar gave it everything at the start with a superb launch to move up into second place, challenging the leader into Redgate before settling into third place. She would unfortunately be shuffled wide on two occasions in the middle of the contest on her way to finishing 10th by the flag, while Taylor began a fine charge through the pack to finish sixth after picking off his rivals one by one.
Fortec Motorsport sit just one point from the lead of the Teams’ Championship after a victory at Donington, while Taylor takes a 14-point advantage into the next GB4 Championship meeting at Snetterton’s 300 circuit on 25/26 June.
Oliver Dutton, Team Manager said:
“It’s been a good weekend for us and in particular for Nikolas who now seems to have clicked with the car and the series, and is only going from strength to strength. We’re now into the lead of the championship, and Jess fought hard in the final race to get a good result but was unlucky to be edged back down the order. We’ll come out fighting to try and get the Teams’ title lead back at Snetterton, where we should be strong having won earlier in the season.”
#17 Jessica Edgar
“We came into the meeting looking to learn more and take what we had learned in testing into this weekend to try and come away with a positive result. I fought hard in the final race to maintain as many positions as possible, but got shuffled back when we were running well in third.”
#66 Nikolas Taylor
“A very good weekend for me personally and it’s good to be leading the championship again after a bit of bad luck early in the season. The team did a great job and the car was fantastic all weekend so I’m very happy to come away with pole position and another win.”
