Another day, another ‘10 Questions’ guest! This time it’s the younger brother of my last guest! Following sister Megan into the hot seat is Nick Gilkes!
Nick is currently racing in the GB3 Championship with Hillspeed as he embarks on his first year racing in Europe, and first in single seaters with wings and slicks after winning the Canadian Formula Ford 1600 Championship in 2021.
Like sister Megan, Nick started racing while their family lived in Barbados and has gone on to achieve success wherever he’s gone, including now in GB3 and currently sits 18th in the championship standings.
📸 Nick and Megan together.
A racing family, Nick’s father Brent also raced Formula Ford in the 1980’s, as well as in British and European Opel Lotus series, while his paternal grandfather and grandmother also raced, taking part in Special Saloon and Hillclimbing races among some other racing activity.
Onto Nick’s answers!
1. Hairpins or chicanes? Both are good, but probably chicanes. They can be really flowing and really add to a circuit, and are really satisfying to get right.
2. Long straights or slow corners? Definitely slow corners, but ideally after a long straight. Plenty of overtaking opportunities in heavy braking zones which makes for exciting races.
3. Understeer or oversteer? Understeer in high speed corners, oversteer in slow speed. The oversteer helps rotate the car in the slower speed stuff which means that it’s easier to get back on the power sooner.
4. Fast circuits or technical circuits? Fast for Both technical and high speed circuits are cool, both have different qualities that make them super fun to drive and compete at.
5. Wet races or wet/dry races? Hahahahahaha…This depends entirely on where I start - if I’m at the front, normally I’d want it to be simple and if it’ll rain, just stay wet. But if I’m starting closer to the midfield or back, who doesn’t love a bit of weather unpredictability 😂
6. What’s your favourite circuit you’ve raced? I really like Silverstone. Very flowing, very fast, but also a lot of different corner types to make it interesting. That being said, I also really like the Circuit Trois-Rivières in Canada, which is a street circuit I raced at last year in Canadian F1600.
📸 Silverstone is good…
📸 …but is Circuit Trois Rivières in Quebec better?
7. Favourite you’ve NOT raced? This is a tough one. I think Spa, where we race at next week, is a really cool circuit. I can’t wait to go there for the first time. Thanks to my sponsors HIP Motorsports I’ve been able to drive it on the sim, and it feels magical. To experience it in real life is going to be mind boggling, for sure.
📸 Scenic Spa. Potentially “mind boggling”.
8. Your favourite F1 livery ever? I wouldn’t say I have a favourite livery in F1. There’s none I don’t like at the moment, all the teams have some really creative designs that all look very good.
9. Your favourite helmet design ever? I don’t know how often this answer is given… but probably mine 😂. It was designed in order to represent my dual nationality, and I think it looks quite nice. Without my sponsors Contest Of Speed it wouldn’t have been made possible, so I’m really grateful to them.
📸 Nick’s striking ‘dual nationality’ style helmet, featuring Canadian and British influence.
10. Who is the best driver you’ve raced against? If I answer with anyone but my sister, I’m going to get into trouble here 😂 Being serious, Megan can be very fast, so I have to say her. It’s great to see her racing for main race wins in GB4 with Hillspeed, she and the team work really well together.
📸 “Fast” big sister Megan.
Massive thanks to Nick for taking the time out to answer so in depth and chat with me! I hope to do something with him again!
Nick is in action this week and his favourite circuit he’s not yet raced, Spa! I’ll have to check in with him after the weekend and see how it went!
📸 Image credit(s): Hillspeed, Red Bull Content Pool, Circuit Trois Rivières, Formula Motorsport Limited, W Series, Nick Gilkes.
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