“We’ll keep on pushing!” vows Dan Zelos following frustrating turn of events at Snetterton

It was yet another dramatic race weekend for Dan Zelos at Snetterton as he battled against the odds to secure his third podium finish of the campaign.

Luck hasn’t been on Zelos’ side for the majority of the Mini Challenge to date, but the former champion continues to push on as just two weekends of racing remain.

Zelos headed into the event feeling positive after a successful test day, but things took a turn in qualifying as he ran into an undiagnosed engine issue that continued into race one, resulting in eighth place.

With his engine firing on all cylinders once again on Sunday, Zelos managed to climb his way to a podium finish as he firstly managed to advance Max Coates, Lewis Brown and Sam Weller to secure fifth place. As Zelos latched onto Jack Mitchell’s tail to gain fourth place from him, braking issues set in, losing him momentum so he had no choice but to keep Weller at bay to the flag.

Reflecting his bad luck throughout the competition, Zelos missed out on pole position for the reversed grid finale by just one spot, but undeterred he immediately went on the offensive, picking off team-mate Ronan Pearson and Alex Denning in swift succession to climb to third.

His braking issues returned and briefly saw him pushed back down to fifth before he managed to reclaim fourth from Pearson midway through before zeroing in on Denning. As Zelos was primed to launch a late attack, suddenly one of the wheels came away from Denning’s car, securing Zelos his podium finish.

“At least we came away with a trophy, so we didn’t leave completely empty-handed, but we had clearly been hoping for a lot more than that. We just can’t seem to catch a break at the moment and yet again, we ran into niggling issues that held us back.

“We didn’t know what was wrong until I was running in traffic in race one, when it became apparent something was amiss with the engine; whenever I got close to another car, it began producing less boost than normal and I just got mugged.

“I was battling with Mitchell for fourth in race two when the brakes started playing up, which dropped me away from him and back towards Weller. If we had got the reversed grid pole for race three and been in clean air, I really think we would have had the pace to drive away; as it was, I managed to get into third within the first couple of laps before the braking issue reoccurred, which cost me all the ground I had gained.

“Overall, I feel I drove the best I possibly could and took no prisoners, and we came away with no damage to the car and having finished all three races when a number of my rivals didn’t, which helped a bit in the championship. It obviously hasn’t been our year for a number of reasons, but there are still two weekends to go and we never give up. We’ll keep on pushing!”

The penultimate round of the championship takes place at Silverstone on 23rd-25th September.

To follow Dan’s race journey, check out his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.