Zelos secures sixth win of the season at Oulton Park
4th July 2023
Dan Zelos now holds a 51-point margin over his closest rival after securing his sixth win of the season at Oulton Park.
The weekend started well in free practice, with Zelos completing two consecutive laps good enough for the top spot on the starting grid. This preserved his perfect pole position record and earned him six bonus points.
This momentum continued in race one as Zelos took the lead from the start, not deterred by the interruption of the safety car and taking the chequered flag in just under two-thirds-of-a-second to the good. Being the fastest lap, he also took home maximum points for the day.
From sixth on the partially-reversed grid for race two on Sunday, Zelos got away well at lights-out, but found himself boxed in by a slow-starting car ahead and subsequently forced onto the grass, dropping him to seventh. He climbed back up to sixth, but with the leaders by then almost four seconds ahead, Zelos made the decision to hold back and ensure he brought his MINI safely home in one piece.
“At Oulton its fast, flowing corners, big braking zones and tight chicane leaving no room for error, that’s always the highlight of the weekend for me. We were fast straightaway, and I was sitting second behind one of my team-mates when it began to rain. Some drivers chose not to go out again, but grid position is extra-important at Oulton since it’s so difficult to overtake there and I really wanted to get pole for the additional championship points – and we smashed it out of the park!
“From there, I got a mega start in race one and built up a buffer to the drivers behind. The safety car then came out, which allowed us to cool the tyres a bit in the heat, and at the re-start, I tried to catch the others napping. After that, it was all about managing the gap, and taking a sixth win of the season capped a pretty perfect day.
“Race two was always going to be more of an uphill struggle. I got another great start, but I was on the outside going through Turn One and got politely shown the grass, which cost me all the ground I had gained.
“I had my team-mate directly ahead of me, and he was running a similar set-up on his car, which meant we were quick in the same parts of the lap. I managed to pull off a good switchback move on him, but by then, there was a big gap to the pack in front and I’d taken the best out of my tyres. I was also missing my splitter and carrying a bit of damage from being run off the track on the first lap, so I didn’t want to push too hard.
“I think we definitely deserved more than sixth place from that race, but we still outscored all of our rivals over the course of the weekend to extend the championship lead and now, we have a few weeks to recharge our batteries and reset.
“I’m super-proud of our fightback to the front this year and whatever happens, we’ve already achieved and overcome so much in 2023. It’s been the best first half to a season I’ve ever had, and when we return to action at Knockhill, the aim is clearly to pick up again from where we’ve left off…”
The season will resume at Knockhill on the 12th and 13th of August. Catch all of the action on our social channels.
