Ammonite’s Colin Queen, plus Oldfield Motorsport duo Lucas Romanek and Brandon McCaughan were the lead teenage drivers in the 2022 Avon Tyres National Formula Ford Championship. Each will now head to the shoot-out at Snetterton on 18 October, where they’ll drive Fortec GB4 machinery in pursuit of the £20,000 prize.
17-year-old Queen finished second overall in his sophomore campaign in the category this year, taking three wins and nine additional podiums, ending his season in style with a victory and two second places at Donington Park.
“It’s been a really good year for us” he said. “We’ve been really consistent throughout the season, there’s only one weekend that went sideways for us but other than that it’s been really good, with multiple podiums and wins.”
The Californian has been racing for 10 years and began his career in karting, expanding into European competition before graduating to car racing. His achievements are even more impressive considering he was born with a congenital heart defect that required three open heart surgeries before he reached the age of three.
Despite this, he represented the USA in top-line karting before moving to the UK for his Formula Ford action, and is now hoping that the GB4 shoot-out can propel him further up the ladder.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it, I think it’ll be an incredible experience both on track and off it,” Queen said. “The press coverage alone that it will generate will be immense and will definitely help me in the near to long future hopefully.”
Queen has driven a slicks and wings machine back in his homeland, but reckons he’ll learn a lot at the Snetterton shoot-out next month.
“It’ll be great to drive the car, I’ve driven a US F4 car before back in 2020, but just getting back in a slicks and wings car with not much experience, it’ll be a good learning tool for me, especially if I go on to test anything else.”
He reckons winning the shoot-out would be crucial for his future career in motorsport.
“It’ll be very important and beneficial, it will help me and my family out that much more. If I’m seriously looking to compete in the GB4 Championship next year, it’ll be really helpful.”
