Dino Zamparelli (JTR) made the most of an early pace advantage to steal a march in the opening Porsche Carrera Cup GB race at Silverstone, and despite a late race scare, was never headed after usurping pole sitter Dan Cammish (Redline Racing) in a daring move at Brooklands on lap two.
A twenty two car grid was diminished by one before the lights even went out, with Matt Telling losing control on his pit lane outlap and terminally damaging his Welch Motorsport car.
In tricky conditions Cammish led the field away but was soon overthrown by the charging Zamparelli. Tio Ellinas meanwhile kept at a safe distance to hold onto third position in his sister JTR car.
The other key narrative was championship leader Charlie Eastwood’s progress from thirteenth on the grid, a consequence of a grid penalty after contact with Cammish at Knockhill. By lap four the Irish charger was seventh and subsequently usurped his Redline Racing team-mate Dan McKay at Becketts. He then became part of a thrilling three way scrap for fourth headed by another two prongs in the Redline attack, namely Tom Oliphant and Euan McKay.
Back at the front of the order Cammish was held up as he attempted to lap some of the understandably cautious Pro-Am2 order, and Ellinas punished the double champion yet further by stealing second at Luffield. As the track dried the race switched into the hands of Cammish, who made swift work of reclaiming second after dicing through Copse and Becketts with Ellinas.
In the dying laps Cammish closed but would ultimately be denied, Zamparelli firmly propelling himself to the forefront of the championship hunt with an impressive victory. Eastwood, perhaps motivated by his nearest rival’s boldness, finished the contest fourth having worked his way past first Euan McKay and then Oliphant.
Lewis Plato (JTR) fought off Dan McKay for seventh, with In2Racing duo Tom Wrigley and Jamie Orton rounding out the top ten. A cautious Ross Wylie (Slidesports) completed the Pro order in thirteenth.
Stalwart Karl Leonard (Team Parker Racing) was unable to prevent his charging stablemate Alex Martin from wrestling the Pro-Am1 advantage on the final lap of a thrilling race. Points leader Justin Sherwood held on to the final rostrum position, but was made to work under relentless pressure from John McCullagh’s rapid Redline Racing entry. Graeme Mundy’s Parker machine rounded out the Pro-Am1 order.
Peter Kyle-Henney dominated Pro-Am2 for In2Racing, holding Shamus Jennings (G-Cat Racing) at a comfortable distance race long. David Fairbrother (Slidesports), Ian Dockerill (Asset Advantage Racing) and Rupert Martin (Parker) rounded out the classified finishers.
In all three classes the gap between first and second in the respective championship tables diminished after race one at Silverstone. If the same happens once more in the second event, the picture heading to Finals Day could be very different to the one painted at the start of the weekend in Northamptonshire.
Full results from all of the TOCA action this weekend at Silverstone can be found here: http://www.tsl-timing.com/event/173703
