Dan Zelos feels his Ginetta Junior Championship title challenge is back on track after moving up to third in the standings thanks to second and fifth place finishes at Thruxton.
Zelos returned to the scene of his breakthrough maiden Ginetta victory twelve months ago eager to kickstart his title assault after a frustrating start to the season, with a pair of fifth place finishes his best results in the first four races.
“We had some problems at Brands Hatch, thought it might have just been a bad round, then went into Donington Park and we were still off the pace,” Zelos explained to TCF.
“I wasn’t happy, so we worked hard ahead of this weekend with some testing, fixed a problem with our dampers, and it’s certainly paid off as I’m back up the front with the fast ones.
“I’m really happy that I’ve got onto the podium, and now we’ve got to keep getting consistent points on the board and continue making my way up the standings.”
The podium finish came in an action-packed opening race for the 17 year old, as he climbed up the order from sixth on the grid. A great move around the outside at the complex secured him fourth on the opening lap, before he picked up third a lap later.
After a safety car period mid-race, Zelos pulled off the overtake of the race with a dive down the inside of Stuart Middleton at the fastest corner in the UK, Church, before he quickly closed right onto the tail of the leader, crossing the line just 0.187 seconds adrift.
“I was really happy with my moves early on,” he added. “Some came from last year, I looked back at my races and picked some places that the rookies might not be expecting moves to come from. It wasn’t easy though, they’re all quick and they know what they’re doing.
“I think if we had one more lap we could have won it, we certainly had the pace, but I wasn’t going to do anything stupid. We had a race later in the day with a three hour turnaround so I didn’t want to give the team any extra work and throw away a good result with second.”
