DAN ZELOS DOUBLES UP IN FINAL SILVERSTONE RACE

Dan Zelos made it two wins from three in the final Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE race of the weekend at Silverstone to further strengthen his championship lead with one round left to go.

Zelos started the final race of the weekend from fourth on the grid but gained a place immediately when Nelson King failed to get away from the line, and then cleared team-mates Oliver Meadows and Thomas Jack Lee before the end of the opening lap.

That would prove to be that for the former champion as once out front, he was able to control proceedings with his fellow EXCELR8 racers not quite able to match him for pace.

The victory took Zelos into double figures for the season and means he is now 101 points clear at the top with a maximum of 174 still on the table in the final three races.

In what would prove to be a relatively quiet race at the front, Lee and Meadows held station throughout as EXCELR8 locked out the podium, with Will Orton following the trio home in fourth place as he battled back from the gearbox gremlins that had hampered him in race two.

That leaves Orton second in the standings and comfortably clear of the fight for third, whilst he also holds a handy lead in the Rookie Cup after King’s early race drama.

The only changes for position in the top six after the opening lap would come when Josh Porter ran wide through Luffield on the second lap to allow Jamie Osborne and Lydia Walmsley to get ahead with the pair taking the flag in fifth and sixth – although Walmsley would be demoted back to ninth in the results due to a track limits penalty.

King had set the fastest lap as he charged back through the field to seventh only to be hit with a similar penalty that dropped him to tenth, which meant newcomer Spencer Stevenson rounded out the top six for his best result of the weekend.

Joe Tanner took seventh, and secured the Directors Cup title for the second successive season, with Bradley Gravett eighth despite a sideways moment at Copse.

Ryan Faulconbridge and Lewis Selby rounded out the top twelve – the latter having also been penalised for track limits, with Josh Porter, Jordan Kerridge, Simon Reed and Dominic Wheatley rounding out the finishers.

Wheatley had looked set to close to within a handful of points of Osborne in the Graduate Cup before being forced to pit to have damage to his car looked at but remains in contention for the title going into the final weekend.