Fortec Motorsport GB4 duo Jack Taylor and Thomas Ingram Hill demonstrated a step forward from the team at the series’ most recent round in Silverstone, whilst race three there saw Stefan Bostandjiev and Pace Performance ‘maximise the opportunity’ despite a speed deficit. All three drivers spoke to Feeder Series about their hopes of continuing their good form into the penultimate round this weekend at Brands Hatch.

By George Sanderson

By winning races one and two at Silverstone from pole three weeks ago, Fortec Motorsport’s Taylor became only the second driver after Ary Bansal to take consecutive victories this GB4 season. Taylor’s victories were his first in the GB4 Championship after he had claimed two podiums earlier this season and one in his debut campaign last year.

Having claimed pole position by a tenth of a second, Taylor went on to take his maiden GB4 victory in race one by 2.960 seconds after leading from lights to flag. It was a performance that Taylor believed showed his progression not just this season but since he first entered GB4 in 2024.

“In the earlier rounds, like at Donington, I was quite quick,” he said. “It was just all the other little things that needed working on because from last year, I didn’t have much experience fighting at the front. But now, I feel like I’ve got everything a bit more down pat, so it’s all shown this weekend.”

With teammate Ingram Hill fighting from sixth on the grid to second at the flag, Fortec took their first one-two finish in GB4 since the series began in 2022. The previous round at Snetterton – where he finished seventh, sixth and fourth in the three races – had been Ingram Hill’s strongest weekend until then, but he was still the only Fortec driver yet to take a podium.

The 16-year-old described the performance as ‘a big step forward’ for the team, whose drivers had only three previous appearances on the podium this season. By race two, they had doubled that tally, when Taylor claimed victory once more after pitting for wet tyres at the end of the formation lap.

Just two drivers – Arden Motorsport’s Ava Dobson and Graham Brunton Racing’s Mayer Deonarine – took to the grid for the race start, whilst the rest of the field chose to change off the slick tyres and onto wets. Taylor said that he spotted rain on the warm-up lap but ‘waited until the last second to see if it continued raining’ before pitting for wet tyres.

After his stop, he showed searing pace in the wet conditions. He had already caught and passed Dobson on lap two before taking the lead from Deonarine by the end of lap three.

A lap later, he was leading by more than 16 seconds, only to have the lead chalked off by a safety car period after Alexandros Kattoulas – the second of the wet-tyre runners – spun into the barriers on the exit of Stowe.

After the safety car period ended, Taylor comfortably held on, taking the flag 3.022 seconds ahead of Hillspeed’s Leandro Juncos. It was almost consecutive one-two finishes for Fortec as Ingram Hill entered the Wellington Straight in second, only to be overtaken by both Juncos and rookie Arjen Kräling in the final corners.

Ingram Hill admitted to Feeder Series that he ‘should have got P2’ but ‘made a mistake and lost P3’ as well.

“I have no excuse for it. It was just a mistake I made, so P4 [is] a bit disappointing,” he added.

Still, he recognised that Silverstone had been a step forward from previous rounds, saying that he was ‘very happy with everything’ that weekend and that ‘everyone at Fortec is in a good place’.

This year marks Ingram Hill’s first campaign in single-seaters following his graduation from the Ginetta Junior Championship last year. ‘A troublesome year’ by his own description yielded only 11th place in the drivers’ standings and a best race result of eighth – metrics he has comfortably exceeded this year.

After Silverstone, he is ninth in GB4’s standings, just 12 points off Taylor in sixth place, and the single-seater rookie has victory in his sights for the final two rounds of the season. 

“I’d be really disappointed if it doesn’t happen,” he said. “We’ve [had] the potential of the podium in every one of the last rounds. I think we can get a win.; I’d be really happy with that. We should have walked away with two trophies [at Silverstone]. We only walk away with one and some glasses, but we’re happy.”

Fortec’s gain was Elite Motorsport’s loss, and for only the second time this season, the teams’ championship leaders left a race weekend having not won any of the races. Honours in race three went the way of Pace Performance and former Fortec driver Stefan Bostandjiev, who, like Taylor, took his first win in GB4 over the weekend.

The Bulgarian explained to Feeder Series that Pace had been ‘struggling a lot recently with top speed’ for their cars. With Bostandjiev starting the reverse-grid final race from third, the team decided to ‘take a gamble to maximise the opportunity’ of a good result.

“We ran as little rear wing as possible to maximise the straight-line speed because in all of testing, in all of practice, we’ve been four or five miles an hour down,” Bostadjiev explained. “It was very difficult through all the high-speed stuff, but I managed it well. At least we know where the problem is, and we’ll work on it for Brands Hatch.”

The 21-year-old began the season as a full-time driver for Fortec in the GB3 Championship. His GB4 appearance at the Donington Park season opener was originally just done for practice, helping him make the adjustment to single-seaters easier.

Bostandjiev struggled in GB3, however, finishing outside the top 20 on three occasions and suffering two retirements. After just three rounds in the championship, he called time on his GB3 campaign with Fortec and switched his focus to GB4 with Pace.

“It’s a very tough sport because everyone perceives the driver as the main performance tool on track, but the car is very important,” he said. 

“In GB3, I was in a very uncompetitive car, which was a shame because we worked very hard and could never really find out the problem. I think that GB4 allows everything to be a little more competitive to each other. So if you find the window, you can do a good job, and I think the job was done [in race three].”

Similar to Ingram Hill, Bostandjiev is contesting his first season in single-seaters this year. But unlike the British teen, he has three years’ experience in GT4 in addition to spending last year racing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe.

“My job here is to learn as much as possible for next year,” he said. “What that may entail, I don’t know, but it’s been good. We’re chipping away at the performance and that’s what we’re here for.”

With Brands Hatch on the horizon, the Bulgarian, who lives in London, will be hoping Pace can fix the top-speed issues they had been experiencing.

“We’re learning the track. It is a bloody cool track from the sim!” he said. “I presume it’s the same in real life – very old-school and technical. The grid should be quite close.”

Header photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography