23 May 2009

Zamparelli impresses on BARC debut
with a strong second place

BRDC Rising Star Dino Zamparelli initiated his single seater campaign in the UK with a very convincing 2nd place on his Formula Renault BARC debut at Oulton Park, Cheshire.

During Friday free practice, Dino’s car endured engine problems which meant he missed vital laps round the Oulton Park circuit, and only got out for the last session.

Saturday morning’s qualifying session was a close fight at the top as Dino narrowly missed out on pole position by 3 tenths of a second. Posting an impressive time of 1:22.7, Zamparelli put his car in second place.

After qualifying Dino commented, “I was happy with my qualifying because it was the first time we went out on new tyres this year. Going on new tyres is harder than it seems because there is a short window of time where the tyres are at their optimum. Normally, the first few laps are where the tyres work best and I actually set my quickest lap on lap 10 of qualifying.”

“Nonetheless, I’m happy with second position considering the amount of experience Kieran (Clark) has on new tyres. If I can get the timing right on my flying laps, then I will be a lot quicker on new tyres.”

The opening round of the year in the Formula Renault BARC championship proved to be a close battle. Dino jumped off the line and slotted in behind the pole sitter. From there, Dino was frustrated not to be able to make a move for the lead. Dino kept the gap as close as possible but in the end had to settle with second. Dino’s quickest lap during the race was only 3 tenths shy of pole.

After the race, the Reon Motorsport driver said “I’m fairly happy with the result. If you consider the amount of experience Kieran (Clark) has got in these Formulas compared to the lack of experience I have, then I think it’s a very strong result. I think I pushed my tyres a little too hard during qualifying and during the opening few laps of the race. This meant that towards the end of the race, I started to lose a lot of grip and consequently a loss of performance. However, I have beaten second and third year drivers today so I have no shame in coming second.”

“Overall I have a lot of positives to take away with me and I have gained valuable experience, as well as taking a decent haul of points. Once I get my qualifying right, then I think I will be in the right place to challenge for the win. I’m confident that by the next round, I will have sorted out my qualifying and perhaps found some more lap time.”

“We have a month before the next round so there is enough time for me to finish my GCSE’s and to get some more testing done!”

“I’d like to say thank you to my team, Reon Motorsport, for giving me a great car to drive and for all their hard work throughout the week, and to my sponsors, Bottelino’s Restaurants and Tyres Direct UK. Finally, I’d like to say thank you to my school, QEH Bristol, for giving me the time off to come and race.”