Zamparelli Back In Control

With Double WinVictory during round 20 of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Silverstone National Circuit on Sunday, 31st August, saw Dino Zamparelli extend his new-found series lead over Thomas Carnaby to 39 points.Claiming his second win of the weekend, added to a double pole position and also the fastest lap of the race during the wet round 20, Zamparelli enjoyed a near perfect weekend while several of the other front-runners encountered problems.“I got off the line pretty badly, George Richardson and Daniel Lloyd both came past me but I managed to keep my nose clean for the first lap as others made mistakes”, said the championship leader, “I weighed up the options seeing where the grip was and then pulled away clearly. It’s great to have taken two wins this weekend.”Not getting the best of starts as he explained, Zamparelli slipped to fourth position on the run through Copse Corner. Carnaby was away quite well from the inside of the front-row but fourth placed starter George Richardson made a better getaway, darting across to the inside line for Copse and forcing team-mate Carnaby wide. As Richardson took the lead and Carnaby tried to recover onto the track, Daniel Lloyd shot through the upper order from seventh on the grid to snatch second place behind Richardson on the run out of Copse to Becketts – an awesome start.Josh Hill maintained his grid slot of third but Zamparelli quickly mounted his recovery and sliced past Hill up the inside into Brooklands on the opening lap. At the next corner, Luffield, Lloyd had a slip up after spinning out of second position onto the grass on the exit – he did rejoin the race but a long way down with a car that looked a handful.Following Lloyd’s spin, the order was Richardson, Zamparelli, Hill, Fergus Walkinshaw and Carnaby but at Becketts on lap two, Zamparelli took the lead and from that point he was never headed as he stretched out a good lead.Walkinshaw moved up into third place at Brooklands but Hill didn’t want to relinquish the position and pressured his team-mate. Walkinshaw held on into the third tour and was given more breathing space on lap four as Carnaby, now in fourth place ahead of Richardson, started to put Hill under the microscope.While several drivers a little further down the order had spins as the slippery track proved problematic, at the front the battles were good as Hill redoubled his efforts as he gunned for second place into Copse on lap six. Walkinshaw again held on to the place but as they squabbled, Carnaby got a run. The order remained unchanged though.Slight contact between Hill and Walkinshaw at Luffield enabled Hill to move through into second position, just before the yellow flag zone which signaled the Safety Car had been deployed in time for the start of lap seven – the reason being Oliver Llewellyn’s car which was stranded in the gravel on entry to Woodcote.As the clock ticked down the Safety Car remained on track and it looked as though the race would finish under caution. There was time for one last racing lap though and Carnaby made the most of it by passing Walkinshaw into Brooklands.Unfortunately for the former series leader though, the race result was declared after 15 minutes and, therefore, the ninth lap of the race. This meant Zamparelli took the win from Hill with Walkinshaw third, Carnaby fourth, Richardson fifth and Dominic Pettit sixth. Aaron Williamson came through well from 15th on the grid to seventh ahead of Ashley Craig, Jake Batty and the recovering Lloyd in 10th position.In further news relating to Saturday’s 19th round of the season, three drivers were excluded from the results after failing ride-height checks post-race. These were Pettit, Jake Farndon and Llewellyn.Mallory Park in Leicestershire is the next stop on the Ginetta Junior Championship calendar just a week from now, 6th/7th September, where the category will form part of the bill for the second ‘Ginetta Festival’ of 2008.Away from its regular slot on the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship package, the Ginetta Junior competitors will race alongside the senior G20 series, the G50 Championship and some historic Ginetta action.Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd 20):1st Dino Zamparelli, 528pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 489pts; 3rd Josh Hill, 394pts; 4th Daniel Lloyd, 338pts; 5th Jake Farndon, 314pts; 6th Fergus Walkinshaw, 306pts

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