Zamparelli Joy At Silverstone National

CARNABY DESPAIR AT SILVERSTONE NATIONALDino Zamparelli regained control of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Silverstone National Circuit yesterday afternoon, Saturday, 30th August, after easing to a dominant race victory during round 19 – his ninth win of the 2008 campaign.Thomas Carnaby arrived at the 1.64-mile Northamptonshire track leading the driver standings but after being forced to retire from Saturday’s race on the opening lap, he has now slipped 24 points behind his rival with just five rounds remaining.Of course, the first of those will come today, Sunday, 31st August, at Silverstone but with Zamparelli lining up once again on pole position – as he did today – Carnaby will have plenty of work to do to try and regain the initiative. That said, the Tollbar driver will begin round 20 alongside his rival on the front row.“That was a good race, I’m really happy and I want to say a big thank you to the Muzz Race team and all of my sponsors – credit to all of them”, said Zamparelli after retaking the series lead, “I want the same again tomorrow, hopefully I’ll be able to get away and put in those good laps on the way to another win.”At the start of this afternoon’s 11 lap encounter, Zamparelli led away comfortably from the front of the grid with surprising second placed qualifier Aaron Williamson maintaining his position on the run through Copse for the first time.Into the second turn, Maggotts, Carnaby saw his hopes of a seventh podium in as many races quickly ended when an incident involving Fergus Walkinshaw resulted in the then series leader being forced to retire. As Zamparelli scampered away at the front leaving second placed Williamson, third placed George Richardson and fourth placed Dominic Pettit in his wake, Josh Hill crashed out on entry to Brooklands as he lost the car under braking.This gave Daniel Lloyd the potential opportunity to close down Hill’s third place in the driver standings but the former saw his bid for a fine podium ended on lap seven following contact from Pettit at Luffield.Having made an excellent getaway from an uncharacteristic ninth on the grid Lloyd – competing this weekend with a fractured metacarpal bone in his right hand – quickly climbed into the top five after avoiding the aforementioned lap one chaos at Becketts.After grabbing fourth place from Williamson – who had earlier slipped behind Richardson and Pettit – on lap five at Maggotts, Lloyd went on to produce the move of the race into Brooklands a couple of laps later when he sliced past Richardson and Pettit to take second position. Running through the next turn, Luffield, on the outside, Lloyd was then pitched into the gravel and retirement following contact from Pettit. With all of the squabbling behind enabling Zamparelli to increase his already substantial lead, Pettit was now second ahead of Richardson, Walkinshaw and Alice Powell.The duel for third was incredibly tight into lap eight and with Richardson, Walkinshaw and Powell running side by side, contact seemed inevitable. Richardson came off worse with a spin, nose-first into the pit wall, but the two-time race winner luckily managed to recover and would eventually come home in 15th position.As a result of the lap eight delays, Powell moved up into third place behind Pettit with Walkinshaw fourth, Jake Farndon in fifth and Williamson now sixth. On the final lap, Williamson got the better of Farndon to gain a place but the top four remained the same. Walkinshaw, meanwhile, set a new Ginetta Junior lap record on the last tour with a time of 1m 14.368 seconds (79.34mph) to gain an additional point.Zamparelli took the chequered flag some seven seconds clear of his pursuers with series front-runners Carnaby, Hill and Lloyd all ruing missed opportunities. Alex Austin did well to climb from 14th on the grid to seventh at the finish, just ahead of Sarah Moore – who started 12th. Jake Batty was ninth with Ashley Craig rounding out the top 10.Round 20 of the 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship will commence at 14.45 today, Sunday, 31st August, and is expected to be broadcast live on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4.Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd 19):1st Dino Zamparelli, 491pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 467pts; 3rd Josh Hill, 364pts; 4th Daniel Lloyd, 327pts; 5th Jake Farndon, 322pts; 6th Dominic Pettit, 313pts

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