The third round of the GB4 championship saw the four women of the championship chasing the podium: it would be Logan Hannah to reach the goal of her first podium in the series, with second place in race 3. Megan Gilkes again showed her great potential and was fourth twice.
GB4 Championship headed to the home of British motorsport at Silverstone last weekend for its third round of the season, with again four women on the grid. After Megan Gilkes' great performance in the last two rounds, the Canadian was back at Silverstone with Hillspeed. Jessica Edgar, Logan Hannah and Chloe Grant joined her on the famous British track.
"Thrilled to announce that I will be racing in round 3 of the GB4 Championship at Silverstone this weekend with Hillspeed!" - wrote Gilkes, who is securing her participation in the series round after round. "After a strong showing at the first two events, I’m really excited to see what I can do on the Grand Prix circuit."
"I’d like to say a huge thank you to Quattro Group for their continued support. It was fantastic to carry the logos on the car at Oulton Park, and I’m looking forward to continuing to represent Quattro at Silverstone", Gilkes added. "Also thanks to everyone else who came together to make this weekend possible, and to Infinite Motorsports back home in Canada!"
The qualifying session started off with the right foot for Megan Gilkes (Hillspeed), who topped the timesheets halfway through the session, ahead of Jessica Edgar (Fortec Motorsports), before drivers found some more grip and pace and the order changed quickly until the chequered flag: Alex Walker (Elite Motorsport) was fastest and scored pole for Race 1, ahead of Jack Sherwood (Elite Motorsport) and Nikolas Taylor (Fortec Motorsports). Megan Gilkes came home in 5th, with Jessica Edgar P9, Logan Hannah (Graham Brunton Racing) 11th, followed by Chloe Grant (Graham Brunton Racing) in 12th.
For Race 2, it would be Taylor on pole, preceding Max Marzorati (Hillspeed) and Megan Gilkes. The other female racers will again start from P9 (Edgar), P11 (Hannah) and P12 (Grant).
Walker got away from pole and led at the start Race 1, with Taylor just behind him in what turned out to be a battle for the lead. Sherwood had more troubles at the start and dropped down from 2nd to 6th.
Already at the second lap, Taylor passed Walker, who remained on his tail - but had a sideway moment that gave Taylor some breathing room and ultimately sealed him his first victory of the weekend, with a 0,818 second gap to Walker and Marzorati.
Megan Gilkes once again had a strong race with a lot of on-track battles; she came home in sixth place and scored a good amount of points for the championship. Logan Hannah scored the final point in 10th place, ahead of Jessica Edgar in 11th and Chloe Grant in 13th. The latter had a spin early in the race and lost touch with the pack.
"I started P9 and got a great start, managed to make some moves on others", Edgar said. "Then unfortunately another car and I made contact, so I ended up finishing P11."
Taylor lost out to Marzorati at the start of Race 2 - the new race leader had a great start while Megan Gilkes dropped down to fourth when Walker passed her on lap 1. But that was just the start of the drama: Walker climbed up to second to chase Taylor, with Marzorati on his tail. Taylor attempted to pass Walker around the outside, but they came together and Walker was forced to retire, with Taylor now down to fourth.
At the restart, Marzorati preceded Gilkes - but she was then passed by Taylor for third. It was a big battle all the way down to tenth and up to the podium positions - featuring many position changes.
Taylor finally overtook Marzorati and closed in on Mills; he would pass him around the outside at Copse, only to pull away and take victory in the second race of the weekend, nearly 6 seconds ahead of Jarrod Waberski (Ken Mills Racing) and Marzorati. Megan Gilkes was again fourth after an amazing double move around the outside to pass two cars in one corner.
With a drag race to the finish, Logan Hannah finished 8th - beating Mills by 0,0771 seconds. Jessica Edgar was 10th, right ahead of Chloe Grant in 11th position.
In Race 3, Chloe Grant started from pole, ahead of Logan Hannah - in an all-female front row. Grant was passed by Hannah and Lucas Romanek (Oldfield Motorsport) - the latter chasing down Logan for the race lead.
Grant was having a hard time to keep up with the pace of Waberski and Taylor and they tangled while going three-wide through Vale corner: Taylor and Waberski retired and Chloe dropped to last.
Ahead, Hannah had some hard work to do to stay in front of Romanek; she led half the race and both pulled away from the rest of the pack. But then Romanek could complete a move and secured the final victory of the weekend, ahead of Logan Hannah and Sherwood.
"We started this weekend going into qualifying with a burst intercooler and finished on Sunday afternoon with leading most of the race and a podium, I can’t thank the team enough for their hard work!" - Logan Hannah said.
Megan Gilkes was once again fourth across the line; Jessica Edgar - who had stalled at the start - and Chloe Grant finished respectively 10th and 11th.
"With improved pace today, we moved up the grid in race two, bringing us within the percentile to qualify for the reverse grid off pole for race three", commented Chloe Grant. "However, I got tangled up between two other cars and finished the race in P11."
"I’d say we are lucky to have made it over the line after the collision, and to miraculously not have much damage. " - she concluded.
The next event of the 2022 GB4 Championship will take place from 28th to 29th May at Donington Park.
