Two bad starts cost Zamparelli the chance of victory

Dino Zamparelli was left ruing his costly mistakes at the start of both Formula Renault BARC races at Oulton Park on 28th May, costing him any chance of victory.

Race 1
After grabbing two fine pole positions for Rounds 5 & 6 of the Championship, Zamparelli was in the best position to claim two wins. However, a bad start in the first race meant he slipped back to 5th by the first corner. Quickly trying to make amends, Dino slithered up the inside of another competitor taking 4th place on the run up to the hairpin. As the field entered the braking zone for the hairpin on lap one, Steve Durrant came from the middle of the pack and ran straight into the rear of Dino’s car, ending his race and any hopes of a win.

A furious Zamparelli explained. “It was very poor driving by Steve (Durrant). We saw someone else’s on-board video and he came from absolutely nowhere, out braked about 3 cars and smashed into the rear of my car. This then spun me into James (Theodore) and ended both of our races, causing us a lot of damage.

“It was like watching a video game where the person comes from too far back and tries to take the leading pack out. That was honestly what it was like – ridiculous.”

Race 2
For race two, the Antel team did a brilliant job to get the car fixed and race ready. Zamparelli was on pole but once again Zamparelli had another poor start and this time almost stalled.

After just getting the car to move off the line, Zamparelli was back in 8th place going into the first corner. By lap one Zamparelli had climbed back up to 4th place with some clever moves. During the next lap an incident on the circuit caused the red flags to come out and the race to be stopped.

Starting from 4th on the re-start, Zamparelli finally got the start he was looking for and by the end of lap one was in 3rd position and challenging. However, from there the 18 year old BRDC Rising Star was unable to find a way past and had to settle for 3rd position with fastest lap.

Zamparelli recalls “I had a poor start in race one and race two was even worse! I just didn’t get the biting point and brought the clutch up too quick. It was completely my fault and there’s nothing I can do now apart from to rectify it at Croft.

“We will be going back to the drawing board and looking at how we can improve my starts. I know what I was doing wrong now, that’s the only thing I can take away with me. I also have to apologise to the team for not delivering the results that we wanted or what I should have achieved.”

“I look forward to Croft where I will come back stronger, work on my starts and aim to notch up some wins.”

Rounds 7 & 8 of the Formula Renault BARC Championship take place on the 23/24th July 2011