Chris Car and Dino Zamparelli made their British GT Championship debuts with two one-hour races at Snetterton last weekend (May 18/19), taking plenty of positives from the experience.
In their GT Marques Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, also making its series debut, both Chris and Dino showed good pace while continuing to build up their knowledge base in one of the most competitive national endurance racing series in the world.
After finishing an impressive fourth in GT4 during Saturday morning’s practice periods, in the frantic ten-minute qualifying sessions Dino put in a fantastic lap to finish fifth out of all 23 competitors in the class, while Chris was unfortunately unable to demonstrate his ultimate pace over one lap.
Expecting a tougher challenge in the opening contest of the weekend on Sunday morning, both drivers did well to keep out of trouble while managing their race with faster GT3 machinery coming past and the close competition in GT4, making up six positions by the chequered flag.
Things were going even better in race two as Dino kept the Porsche at the sharp end of the GT4 runners before the pit stop. Taking over mid-race, Chris was running strongly in fourth position in class, before contact from another car forced the team into a frustrating retirement.
Chris, Dino, and GT Marques will next be in action for the Silverstone 500, the British GT Championship’s marquee three-hour event, held on June 8/9. Live coverage will be carried on British GT’s website and social media channels.
Chris Car
There was a lot to take in with GT3 and GT4 traffic but it was enjoyable weekend nonetheless. We had good knowledge from racing here last week which certainly helped, but nothing can compare to actually coming here and competing.
There were good things from myself, Dino, and the team which we can learn from. Overall we have to work on different areas to implement those improvements and build on what we have done so far.
Dino Zamparelli
We’ve had some positives for sure. We qualified fifth in GT4 and Chris learned a lot. We were happy with the car, so to be fifth overall amongst the Pros was very good. We have to start putting more and more together and we’ll be fighting for podiums.
It was good fun. It’s tricky because I was running seventh in the race but all the cars have different strengths – ours isn’t acceleration but is in the corners, so it is yin and yang. It is frustrating as I am used to same-make cars, but I made some good moves and from now on we only have one race per weekend so we’ll see what happens. We’re happy with certain aspects and we’ll improve and keep enjoying what we’re doing