Dan Zelos had to call upon all of his fighting spirit and overtaking prowess in the third round of the 2013 Super 1 Series at Glan Y Gors, as he battled back from a double dose of misfortune to scythe his way magnificently through the field to a second consecutive rostrum finish.
Zelos travelled to Glan Y Gors sitting an excellent second in the British Championship standings, and with strong previous form around the demanding North Wales circuit having only narrowly missed out on the podium there at Comer Cadet level. Now racing one step further up the ladder in the fiercely-contested Mini Max class, the primary objective was to set that record straightand in so doing, maintain his stellar early-season run and keep the pressure firmly on the championship leader.
Ive always enjoyed Glan Y Gors, noted the talented young Norfolk karting star. Its an interesting track with a lot of variation and character. Its technical, undulating and challenging and really highlights the best drivers.
Having not competed at Glan Y Gors in a year, Zelos headed there a week early to participate in a club meeting and evaluate recent improvements to his Tooley Motorsport mount; up against a capacity contingent of high-calibre British contenders, a charging third place from 14th on the grid in the final confirmed the hoped-for progress and established a solid base set-up ahead of the resumption of national hostilities a few days later. The well-regarded Dereham-based hotshot knew he would need to be on it right from lights-out at Super 1and he was.
Zelos qualified a close second out of 19 in his groupa mere whisker shy of the benchmarkand reckoned he could have gone even quicker but for traffic. Unfortunately, due to the format of the Super 1 system, that equated to only eighth overall amongst the 38 entrants, as competitors in the other session benefitted from better track conditionsalthough he was still ten spots further up the order than the driver he is chasing in the points table.
Starting sixth in his opening heat, the 15-year-old wasted little time in gaining four positions prior to setting his sights on the race leader. He duly caught and passed his quarry at mid-distance, but his efforts to edge clear were undone three laps later when his karts performance began to fade, and notwithstanding a valiant defence, a combination of understeer and a loss of grip caused him to slip back to second at the chequered flag. From fifth on the grid, heat two looked like yielding a similar resultat least until the last lap...
I made good progress again and worked my way up into second by lap three before quickly homing in on the leader, Zelos recalled. We were quick at different parts of the circuit, and whilst I would close right up on him in the first sector, he was constantly defending which was hugely frustrating as it slowed us both down and eventually allowed the next group of karts to catch usmeaning I suddenly had to attack and defend at the same time.
I finally succeeded in getting by when Connor Hall overtook me and subsequently found a way past the leaderand I made sure I squeezed through as well. Then on the last lap, I think there was a chain reaction behind and somebody got shunted into me and over the top of my kart. We got tangled up, and the delay meant I only finished 14th. That was extremely annoying, as I had been very happy with my driving and second place would have been really good for championship pointsand it was all destroyed in the space of just a single corner.
Not only that, but it would also have earned him a front row starting spot for the pre-final; as it was, the Northgate High School pupil was left to line up just ninth. After making promising inroads over the first few laps and threatening to crack the top five, he began to lose engine power and grip and unexpectedly found himself fighting a rearguard battle.
With his lap times dropping away significantly as his kart became increasingly difficult to control, Zelos was once more obliged to put up a dogged defence, ultimately crossing the finish line 11th. That the championship leader himself was only sixth was little consolation, and a whole raft of changes were effected ahead of the all-important grand final.
I could immediately tell that the kart was a lot better, he reported. I had so much more grip and could really race this time. I got a decent start to gain a position on the opening lap, and then focussed on capitalising upon other drivers mistakes and attacking them where I could see they were most vulnerable. I moved up into fourth, and then some squabbling behind enabled me to make a break and pull away with the leading pack. I overtook the driver in third on lap 14, and with one more lap I could maybe have challenged for second.
Halving his deficit to take the flag less than a second behind the race-winner, the East Anglian teenager left nobody in any doubt as to his potential when all was going to-plan, and the bravery of some of his overtaking manoeuvres as he swept his adversaries aside was truly impressive to behold. Whats more, his fourth top three finish from six Super 1 finals to-date in 2013 has kept him firmly in the reckoning at the midway stage of the campaign, in second position out of the 45 Mini Max contenders, 41 points adrift of the pace-setter.
PF International is up next, and Zelos boasts a superb record around the Lincolnshire circuit, having tallied his maiden national victory there in 2011 at Comer Cadet level, been denied a famous triumph in the prestigious annual Kartmasters outing later that year by a scant hundredth of a second and set pole position and stormed to a commanding pre-final victory in the same event in 2012. This time around, the aim is clearto break his Super 1 seasonal duck.
I was really pleased with my speed and the way I fought through the field in the grand final at Glan Y Gors, he concluded. I was as quick as or quicker than the winner for much of the race, which is really encouraging going forwardand with a better pre-final, who knows what we might have been able to do... Still, we turned the situation around well and I owe a big thanks to all the guys at Tooley for working so hard.
Weve made a genuine step forward in terms of performance in recent weeks, so hopefully it will be a much closer and more competitive second half of the season. PF is something of a home track for me and Ive always gone well there, so we need to maintain our current positive momentum and try to step things up another gearand if we can do that, we can definitely go for the win.
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
