Hillspeed driver Megan Gilkes became the first female driver to win a GB4 race with her lights to flag victory in the final contest at Snetterton last weekend.
The 21-year-old from Ontario showed plenty of pace across the weekend, but her efforts were initially scuppered by a seat issue in qualifying which restricted her track time and left her further down the grid than her speed had suggested.
But with the reverse grid contest always providing an opportunity to make amends, Gilkes blasted into the lead from second on the grid, and was ultimately a comfortable winner.
“It was a great race and I knew it was going to be about the start. For me, I knew if got a good start and could build up as much of a lead as I could over the first couple of laps, I could just get my head down and go really.
“That’s what I did, but I made a couple of mistakes here and there and the other two drivers, and I think at one point, there may have been three of them, closed back in a bit.”
At one point, just a second covered the top three drivers, but teammate Max Marzorati went defensive in the final stages, denying Fortec’s Elias Adestam a chance of attacking and allowing Gilkes to make good her escape.
“I opened out the lead, then it closed again, and on the final lap, I’m not quite sure what happened between them at the hairpin, but I opened up a bit of a gap and was able to put my head down and say ‘right, last lap, let’s get it done!’”
Gilkes’ participation in the final race had been in a little doubt; a holed radiator caused by debris flicked up by another car in the second race of the weekend meant her Hillspeed team had to put in a shift to get the machine raceworthy again, but they did so with time to spare, with just rewards.
“I can’t thank the team at Hillspeed enough, they’ve done a mega job with getting the cars well set up and to get the car ready again for me after race two after I had the radiator go. They did a great job all weekend and for them to have a 1-2 finish in the end I think is a good reward for their hard work.”
She is now hoping that she can return to the grid for future rounds, and is working to make that happen behind the scenes.
“There are plenty of females in this championship and I hope I can come back for another round again in the future. But in the meantime I hope the girls can continue showing the boys how it’s done.
“Either way, I’m absolutely over the moon, I mean to be the first female winner in GB4 and racing against some really top-line, top quality drivers, I raced against Alex [Walker] and Tom [Mills] last year in Formula Ford and I know a bunch of the other lads as well, they have some good experience in F4 machinery.
“So to be right up there with them, I’m over the moon with it, and it absolutely does rank really high in my top career moments.”
