with race of his life‏

Dan Zelos produced what was arguably the race of his life in the opening round of the 2013 Super 1 Series at Three Sisters near Wigan, holding off no fewer than 13 faster rivals for a magnificent second-place finish that has got his British title challenge off to a flying start.

Zelos travelled to the high-speed Lancashire circuit bullish about his prospects for success off the back of a promising winter build-up and a scintillating charge right the way through the field from the tail-end of the grid to his breakthrough national podium at Mini Max level with the runner-up laurels in last seasons Shenington finale.

Aiming to begin his sophomore campaign in the fiercely-disputed class on a positive notehaving been contentiously excluded from the 2012 Super 1 curtain-raiser over a technical issuethe talented young Norfolk karting star described Three Sisters as an enjoyable track with a lot of technical sections that invariably generate extremely close racing...but it was not long before adversity reared its ugly head once more.

Suffering from the discomfort of stomach cramps, Zelos razor-sharp fitness helped him to bravely battle through the painbut he found persistent kart troubles rather harder to overcome. Explaining that it never wanted to accelerate properly away from the corners, whatever the 14-year-olds Tooley Motorsport outfit threw at the problems, nothing seemed to cure them.

Electrics, kart and engine set-up, gear ratiosall and more besides were changed over the course of the meeting in a fruitless bid to get to the bottom of the lack of performance, and Zelos returned to the pits after qualifying knowing that he had extracted the absolute maximum from the equipment at his disposal but nevertheless fully anticipating a mid-grid starting slot. Extraordinarily, however, he had placed his recalcitrant kart an outstanding third. It was, beyond any doubt, a stunning effort.

I got a good start to leapfrog the pole-sitter into Turn One and immediately snatch the lead, he related of his opening heat. I tried to get away, but it was obvious before very long that we didnt have the pace and I subsequently lost some ground. I focussed on trying to fight back, though, and when people went for moves in front of me, I would follow through or take a different line in an attempt to gain an advantage at the next corner.

I put the other drivers under pressure and took every chance that I was given, and with two laps to go, I regained the lead. I then had to defend all the way to the finish, and although my back ached afterwards from the number of knocks I had received from behind, it was such a good feeling to win knowing wed had far from the quickest kart out there.

Indeed, setting only the 14th-best lap of the race told its own tale, and if the long main straight and significance of the tow around Three Sisters make it hard to protect your position even on a good day, to do so with five palpably faster karts breathing right down his neck represented a master class in defensive driving.

An entertaining duel in heat two yielded an excellent third place and secured Zelos the same spot on the grid for the first of the meetings two finals, but having been able to lap no better than 16th-quickest in the morning warm-up, he was well aware that he was likely to be in for a long afternoon.

I got a decent start to move straight up into second, he recalled, but despite trying to stay with the leader initially, he was soon able to pull away. After that, I focussed on building up a margin to the drivers behind whilst they scrapped amongst themselves, because I knew they would catch me eventually. Sure enough, with a third of the race to go, they began closing the gap hand-over-fist, taking three or four tenths of a second out of me every lap and towing each other right up to my rear bumper.

I had to defend for my life against a whole bunch of quicker karts. I was hit at practically every corner and had to concentrate so hard on not making even the tiniest error or showing the slightest weakness that they could exploit, because if one had overtaken me, several others would probably have forced their way through as well. I was so relieved when the chequered flag came out...

Grittily hanging on, the highly-rated Dereham-based hotshot flashed across the finish line with eight adversaries practically glued to his tail, as the runner-up spoils saw him pick up from where he had left off at Shenington back in Octoberonly this time achieving the result in a dramatically different manner.

At one stage, indeed, he had been faced with a marauding pack of 13 karts inexorably homing in on him, but he withstood the intense pressure admirably and never put so much as a wheel out-of-place. A quick glance at the timing sheets afterwards revealed that Zelos set just the 23rd-fastest lap of the race, giving some indication as to what a truly phenomenal performance it was.

The second final witnessed a similar story, only this time, the Northgate High School pupil was quite literally powerless to prevent his pursuers from coming past, and after spiritedly fending them off for the opening six laps, he gradually slipped down the order from second to ninth. Still, that nonetheless leaves him well-placed in the championship indeed in a superb third spot out of the 42 Mini Max class contenders andprovided Tooley are able to rectify the issues that plagued the team so badly at Wiganlooking in fine shape for a 2013 British title tilt.

Ninth place obviously wasnt what we had been aiming for by any means, but in the circumstances, it could have been a lot worse, Zelos mused in conclusion, and Ill certainly take that position for a bad race! It was probably the toughest couple of days Ive ever had in karting, but I was really pleased with the way I drovejust frustrated with our lack of pace throughout the weekend.

Everything looked really positive during pre-season testing, so weve got a lot of hard work to do before the next round at RowrahTooleys home track and the circuit where I claimed my first Mini Max win in a club meeting early last year. Ive always enjoyed Rowrah and have been successful there in the past, so we need to make sure we are firing on all cylinders next month and come out fighting to give ourselves the best possible chance of continuing that form.

If you are interested in getting involved in life in the fast lane by sponsoring Dan, please contact his dad Andy at andy.zelos@weselltyres.com