Envoy Ambassador Dan Zelos builds momentum in Porsche Sprint Challenge GB at Brands Hatch Indy
14th May 2025
Dan Zelos left Brands Hatch last weekend (10-11 May) buoyed by his continued progression in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB – and confident that he and Graves Motorsport are ‘building momentum towards something really good’.
Following his positive debut at Donington Park in April, Dan headed to Brands Hatch in an optimistic mood. He soon discovered however that the circuit’s layout provided an altogether tougher proposition behind the wheel of his Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport when compared to previous championship outings.
“Brands Hatch is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar and somewhere I’ve traditionally been strong, but the small Indy loop feels very different in the Porsche compared to the MINI I’ve been driving there since 2018,” Zelos explained. “I think what I struggled with the most was that it all goes by so fast in the Porsche that you get no time to think about how to improve or prepare yourself before the next corner is upon you – and that’s without even factoring in having other cars around!
From 14th on the grid for the curtain-raising contest, Zelos made a bright start to climb to 12th, but when he arrived at Surtees for the first time, he was greeted by the sight of a collision directly ahead and a car spinning across his bows. With no opportunity to react, contact was inevitable, and the impact did significant damage to his Porsche’s front-left corner and radiator.
The next day, Zelos made up ground to take the chequered flag tenth in race two, less than 0.2 seconds shy of ninth courtesy of a late charge. He moved forward again in race three, after assertively snatching ninth from Samuel Harvey, Zelos set his sights on Reece Somerfield ahead, going on to slice incisively up the inside of his rival. Zelos then immediately pulled away and proceeded to chase down team-mate Ethan Hammerton, closing right onto his team-mate’s tail at the flag to sign off the weekend in style.
“The Graves Motorsport crew worked their socks off to repair my battered and bruised car for Sunday,” Zelos revealed, “and my objective for race two was to go back out there and rebuild my confidence, which always takes a slight knock when you have any kind of accident, irrespective of whose fault it is… It took me a few laps to properly find my feet, by which point the pack was quite strung out, but it was good to finish inside the top ten and from there, I went into race three targeting further progress.
“This is such a competitive championship, and I’m one of only two rookies out of 16 drivers in the RS class… Considering that and the fact that the last-minute nature of our deal meant we didn’t get much pre-season testing, I think we’re actually doing pretty well and can be very proud of what we’ve achieved so far… It’s all about gaining experience in the Porsche and soaking up as much knowledge and information as I can, and in that respect, I was pleased with my progress at Brands.”
Catch Dan in the next round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge at Oulton Park on 21st-22nd June. Stay up to date with Dan’s progress on our Envoy Tyres’ social channels
