Dan Zelos came within a yellow flag of registering the first victory of his 2013 British Championship campaign on home turf at PF International last time out, but a brace of second places and some impressively feisty racecraft nonetheless sent out a warning shot to his rivals that he will be a force to be reckoned with over the remaining two outings.

Zelos travelled to PF in Lincolnshire in bullish spirits, with an excellent previous record there and having tallied four podium finishes out of a possible six thus far this season, leaving him second in the points standings. It is also the closest thing to a local track at which the talented young Norfolk karting star has the opportunity to compete in the fiercely-contested national Super 1 Seriesso he was determined to put on a good show.

PF is one of my favourite circuits, he enthused. It has every different type of corner imaginable, and since they added the new section a couple of years ago, its become even more challenging because there are now different levels of grip around the lap. I went there aiming to maintain the pressure on the championship leader. Pace-wise, weve really narrowed the gap to him since the start of the season, and the previous round had demonstrated that he is beatable, which is a huge confidence boost.

Whilst his Tooley Motorsport mount was on top form in qualifying, Zelos struggled to get a clear lap in amidst all the traffic. The upshot was an unrepresentative and unaccustomed 11th position on the timesheets out of the 41 distinctly high-calibre Mini Max class contenders.

From eighth on the starting grid for his first heat race, the Dereham-based hotshot was unceremoniously shunted from behind on the opening lap as the field concertina-d up into the first hairpin, dropping him to 14th place. What followed was a magnificent fightback as Zelos proved himself to be consistently one of the very fastest drivers on the track, lapping half-a-second quicker than the winner en route to seventh at the chequered flag.

Heat two, thankfully, was rather more straightforward, and from P7 on the grid, the 15-year-old grabbed three spots off the line before artfully working his way into the leaduntil a small mistake on the last lap enabled two of his pursuers to slip through and relegate him to third.

Still, that earned Zelos a starting position of fifth for the pre-final, and after finding himself boxed in when the lights went out, he pulled off a number of superbly incisive passing manoeuvres to scythe through from sixth into second by lap five, in hot pursuit of championship leader Connor Hall. As the action became increasingly fast-and-frantic, the pair ran side-by-side through the second hairpin and chicane, where Hall got out-of-shape and fell to fifth.

That left the Northgate High School pupil at the front of a five-way scrap for glory approaching the half-distance markalbeit under intense pressure from behind. Tom Gamble stole the initiative on lap nine, but with Hall regaining ground, matters were coming to a head...

It was a bit of a Catch 22 scenario, he explained. I knew if I attacked Gamble, it would cost us both time and Hall would close right onto the back of us, but equally, Tom wasnt going fast enough for us to break the tow to Connor. It came to the stage where Hall was practically with us, so I had to do something.

I saw my opportunity going into the second hairpin on lap 13, but Gamble turned in on me, which cost me my momentum and allowed Hall to slip through into second. I regained my composure and found a way past Tom on the penultimate lap before latching onto Connors tail. I was sizing him up and dived to the inside going into the first hairpin next time around, but then at the last moment, the yellow flags appeared and I had to back out of it. That was so frustrating, because the move was as good as made...

A scant two tenths of a second adrift when the chequered flag fell, whilst his misfortune undoubtedly cost him the win, Zelos nevertheless professed himself satisfied to have tallied more solid points towards his title tilt and to have given Hall a real run for his money.

After conceding a couple of places by dint of being on the outside line of the grid in the grand final, he wasted no time at all in showcasing his scintillating raw speed and overtaking prowess to reclaim his starting spot by lap four, going on to set his sights on Hall and swiftly slicing past into the first corner at the beginning of lap six. He takes up the story...

Connor came back at me at the same place on the next lap, which forced me off the racing line and allowed another four drivers through as well, demoting me to sixth, recounted the East Anglian teenager. I got my head back down and had recovered to third by lap 11, and although there was a gap ahead to the two leaders, I was able to close it down really quickly.

I then received a nudge from behind at the chicane on lap 13, which caused me to slide into the driver in second and our bumpers briefly got tangled together. That dropped me to sixth again, but I pushed really hard and was back up to third by the last lap. Going into the first hairpin, Hall in the lead was defending in the middle of the track which blocked Gamble off, so I swept to the outside to get the cutback on Tom on the exit. It worked like a charm...

A beautifully thought-out move as he read the situation to perfection, with just one more lap he would arguably have taken to the highest step of the rostrum rather than the second as he flashed across the finish line right in Halls wheeltracks and with fastest lap to his credit for good measure, almost a quarter-of-a-second quicker than the race-winner.

To think that he had trailed his quarry by as much as ten seconds in the earliest outings of the campaign only serves to underline the dramatic progress that both Zelos and Tooley have made in recent months, and his weekend results and trademark consistency have strengthened his grip on second spot in the championship standings amongst the 49 Mini Max competitors, 53 points behind Hall but the same margin ahead of the driver in third. He knows his Holy Grail is inching ever-nearer towards his grasp...

I was really encouraged by my performance at PF and happy with my driving and the kart, he affirmed in conclusion. Whilst Halls success this year appears to intimidate some other drivers to the extent that nobody else seems to want to attack him, we proved we are willing to have a goand we almost pulled it off. If it hadnt been for the yellow flags in the pre-final, we would have done.

Were the closest weve ever been to him right now and were definitely moving in the right direction. Weve shown weve got the pace and the potential to winso the next step is to go out there and do it.

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