Colin Queen has best weekend of rookie GB3 season at Zandvoort

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Colin Queen has best weekend of rookie GB3 season at Zandvoort

19-year-old American finishes season-best fourth, seventh in tricky conditions

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (15 July 2024) – Colin Queen had the biggest weekend of his rookie campaign in the GB3 Partnered by the BRDC, scoring season-best finishes of fourth and seventh in the Summer Trophy Weekend at Circuit Zandvoort.

The 19-year-old Floridian backed by ONE Sotheby’s International Reality qualified 14th in the No. 62 fielded by Fortec Motorsports to open the fifth event of the campaign, and opened the weekend with a season-best seventh in Saturday’s rainy Race 1.

Sunday saw better conditions for Race 2, with Queen avoiding carnage at lights-out and then charging to finish fourth – missing the podium by just 0.422-seconds.

He ended the weekend with another top-10 in Race 3, placing ninth after passing two of the championship contenders late in the event – his sixth top-10 finish of the season. Entering the weekend 13th in the standings, he is now 11th in the points – but well in the hunt for sixth position.

“Possibly my best drives of the season, for sure,” Queen said of his first visit to the track. “Very hectic, but successful. I’ve learned a lot this year about race strategy; taking care of my tires; so many things.”

While he was third in Thursday’s unofficial testing, the weekend opened in disappointment when he qualified 14th.

“We still need to work on qualifying,” Queen admitted. “We had really strong sectors, but I just didn’t piece them together at the end. It was raining at the start of the session, but it was drying out at the end, and I overheated my rear tires. We had been up to fifth or sixth most of the time, but I fell back at the end. I definitely felt I had the pace, but it was not where we wanted to start.”

Saturday’s Race 1 was held on a drying track, with the competitors running on slick tires despite on-and-off showers throughout the 14-turn circuit that changed from lap to lap. Queen had a strong start and passed four cars on the opening lap. He was up to eighth before a caution period at the midway point, and came up just short in the battle for sixth at the finish.

“It was a race for survival in mixed conditions on slicks, and I definitely thrived in that,” Queen said. “It started pouring with just two turns left on the formation lap. This is going to be interesting! I got a good start. I trusted my instincts, and the car really came to me. I worked my way up as other people were making mistakes. 14th to seventh was a really good run.”

Saturday had been his best result of the season after placing eighth and ninth in the season-opening Easter Weekend races at Oulton Park.

But Sunday’s finish was even better.

Gridded 12th (based on second-best qualifying time), Queen went to the right to barely miss a three-car accident directly in front of him. He was up to eighth when a red flag sent the field to the pits, with the race resuming with a full restart. He was eighth on the opening lap, and then took sixth following a yellow-flag restart. Queen worked his way to fourth with five minutes remaining, and challenged for third for the remainder of the race.

“There was a massive crash at the beginning, as I was as close as you can get without being taken out – I was brushing the pit wall,” he said. “It was a hectic race. I got really good positions on the restarts. I set people up for overtakes and got it done. The car was basically perfect for the entire race, and I have to thank Fortec for that. We had the pace to fight, and that’s one of the most important things for this circuit.”

Gridded 13th for Race 3, Queen gained a position on the opening lap. He was battling for 11th on a restart at the beginning of Lap 11, but had light contact and lost three positions. Undaunted, he came up on three cars battling for positions with two laps remaining and passed all of them, and held off the top-two cars in the championship in the battle to the checkered flag to finish ninth.

“The third race was a bit unfortunate,” he said. “We were a bit off on the track conditions and it had a lot of oversteer. Then at the end, luckily we were on new tires and they held on a bit longer than if we were on old tires. Going four wide with two laps to go was was absolutely mental. I almost hit the wall because the other car was squeezing me, but I managed to keep my foot down and I got by all of them and held them off for the last lap and a half. It was a difficult race, keeping the car underneath me, as well as defending for my life.”

GB3 returns to England for the final three weekends of the season, beginning with Silverstone July 27-28 with four races, including a makeup event from Round 2.

“That’s my home race, because I live in Silverstone,” Queen said. “Last time there earlier in the season, the weather was horrendous, and we’re expecting more of that when we go back. But whatever the conditions are, I think we’ll be ready for it.”