Megan Gilkes
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Canadian| Megan Gilkes | |
|---|---|
 Gilkes in 2022 | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Born | November 6, 2000 Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada |
| Retired | 2023 |
| Relatives | Nick Gilkes (brother) |
| W Series | |
| Years active | 2019 |
| Starts | 5 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Best finish | NC in 2019 |
| Previous series | |
| 2017–18 | F1200 Canada |
Megan Gilkes (born November 6, 2000[1][2]) is a Canadian retired racing driver who last competed in F1 Academy. She previously competed in the now defunct W Series in 2019.[3]
A third-generation racer, Gilkes began karting aged nine in her then-home of Barbados. Following a break from racing after a crash in qualifying at the World Finals where she broke her wrist, she won the Ottawa Challenge Karting Cup in her home country of Canada, and finished runner up in the 2016 Eastern Canadian Karting Championship as an ambassador for Dare to be Different.[4][5] In 2017, Gilkes stepped up to single-seaters in the Canadian F1200 championship. Despite not contesting all of the rounds in either season she competed in, she finished third and second overall in consecutive years.[6][7] That same year, Gilkes finished runner up in the Sports Car Club of America Southeast Majors championship, having led it for ten of the twelve rounds.
In 2019, Gilkes applied for the W Series, a European-based Formula Regional championship solely for women. She was selected into the category as one of 18 full-time drivers, but struggled for results as the least experienced driver in the field. Despite winning the non-championship reverse grid race at TT Circuit Assen, she failed to score any points in the regular series races and finished last in the standings.[8] Gilkes returned to Canada in 2020, competing in the Ontario Formula 1600 Championship, where she had two pole positions, two fastest race laps and thirteen podium finishes, and was runner up overall in the series to Mac Clark.[9]
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Gilkes returned to the UK in 2022 through the GB4 Championship, placing sixth in the standings with two wins at Snetterton and Donington Park.[10] The Canadian was accepted into another female-only series, F1 Academy, for 2023, but only managed thirteenth out of fifteen in the championship with two top-five finishes.[11] At the end of the season, Gilkes announced her retirement at 22 years of age to take up an engineering position at the Aston Martin F1 Team.[12]
