The elements might have thrown everything they had at him to make his car racing bow as challenging as it could possibly be, but Dan Zelos rode the storm and came out the other side with a double top ten finish on a tremendously encouraging debut in the 2013 Ginetta Junior Winter Series on ‘home’ turf at Snetterton.
Fresh off the back of ranking a superb third in the country in the fiercely-disputed British Karting Championship, the gifted young Norfolk speed demon has elected to boldly take the next step in his burgeoning motorsport career – and a significant step it most certainly is.
The Ginetta Junior Championship is one of the key support series to the ITV4 live-televised, Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, and offers precociously talented 14-to-17-year-olds the opportunity to earn their racing spurs before they can even legally drive on the road.
The annual Winter Series permits newcomers to gain vital track time and mileage prior to the serious business getting underway in the spring – and given that he was the only driver in the field to have never previously raced a car, none of the contenders was quite as much of a newcomer as Zelos.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous going into the weekend,” he confessed. “It was a massive step – far bigger than moving up a class in karting – and there was an awful lot to get used to. The test days we had done beforehand had prepared me to some extent, but this was the first time I had been out there with other cars on the track as well, which was a very different kettle of fish to driving around on my own.
“I wanted to get to know the team better and learn the track, make the most of the knowledge and expertise of everybody around me and just adapt to what was a whole new environment. I knew how crucial it would be to extract as much experience from the weekend as possible that I could take away into the winter and put to good use next year.”
In damp conditions in Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session, the Ginetta Junior Scholarship finalist placed his distinctive JHR Developments-run, Evergreen-backed G40 13th on the starting grid for the day’s two races – and on a greasy circuit in the first of them, Zelos focussed on steadily finding the grip and not pushing too hard, too soon as the slippery surface caught out many.
By keeping his head, the Dereham-based hotshot had risen into the top ten by the beginning of lap three, when he hit a patch of mud dragged onto the racing line by a spinner directly ahead of him, causing the back end of his car to snap round and pitch him into the barriers. As a measure of his potential, he still came away with a better fastest lap than two of his rivals who went the full distance.
The heavens opened with a vengeance in time for race two later in the day – rendering the track treacherous indeed – and in another drama-fuelled encounter, Zelos made sure not to put so much as a wheel out-of-shape as a number of his adversaries threw it off into the scenery. Mindful of the importance of seeing the chequered flag, his impressive composure was deservedly rewarded with an excellent, confidence-boosting eighth place.
With temperatures plummeting, qualifying the next day was more akin to driving on an ice-rink, and in a yellow flag-interrupted session, the Northgate High School pupil again lined up 13th for the two races – the first of which would yield a second consecutive top ten finish as the driver of the #45 car looked increasingly assured with every passing lap.
He concluded the meeting with 13th position in the final race – the only truly dry outing – but the result did a disservice to what was indubitably his finest performance of the weekend as Zelos got stuck in with brio, lapping 11th-quickest and taking the flag less than two seconds shy of a third top ten finish from four starts. And there is, he insists, plenty more still to come.
“We had pretty much the toughest weather conditions imaginable on Saturday,” the promising East Anglian teenager acknowledged. “I was definitely a lot more comfortable in the last race when the circuit was mainly dry. My speed was much better and I felt like I was really racing rather than just driving.
“Overall, it was an extremely positive weekend and I learned so much. My driver coach, Tom Ingram and the whole team were brilliant with me. We made massive progress in the wet and got consistently closer to the leading pace with every session. I understand which areas I need to concentrate on now, and with more time in the car, that should start to come naturally, so the key is to really capitalise upon everything we have learned so far and build on it over the next few months.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Ingram, three times a Ginetta champion following title triumphs in the Junior Championship, G50 Cup and GT Supercup over the past few years. Considering Zelos was the least experienced competitor in the field by far – with all of the others having raced a car before, nine of them the Ginetta G40 – his mentor is quick to praise the 15-year-old’s stellar achievement and mature and dedicated approach.
“Dan’s first car racing weekend went really well,” Ingram affirmed. “He is keen to learn, studying all the data and taking pointers from the track walks, and he listened and took on-board everything I told him and really embraced it. His progression was absolutely fantastic – he is getting quicker every single time he goes out.
“We know there are still many more improvements we can make and a lot more pace that we can get out of him, but everything is moving in the right direction and with some hard work over the winter, I’m convinced Dan will be exactly where he needs to be by the time the season kicks off at Brands Hatch at the end of March.”
If you are interested in getting involved in life in the fast lane by sponsoring Dan as he takes the next step in his burgeoning career, please contact his dad Andy at andy.zelos@weselltyres.com
