F

or a brief moment it looked like we had a real title battle on our hands. Dominant reigning champion Dan Cammish was under pressure. Heading into the long mid-season break, Cammish’s advantage over Dino Zamparelli at the top of the standings was just three points.

Then Cammish went and won seven of the next eight races to claim a comfortable second Carrera Cup GB crown.

“At halfway we were happy, it was looking rosy and we were comfortable,” says Zamparelli. “Croft was a good turning point. The first three rounds we didn’t nail it for pole position but we put in some solid performances and had more fastest laps than Dan. Then everything came together in those two races [at Croft] with two poles, two wins and two fastest laps.”

While Zamparelli demonstrated his full potential in North Yorkshire, Cammish’s 22-race podium streak ended as it was a tough weekend for the Redline driver.

His difficult Croft meeting began with an off in Friday practice that put him sixth and meant he was released from the pitlane for qualifying further down the order than usual. He then had a suspected gearbox issue, which meant his early flying lap – when traffic got in the way – left him sixth on the grid, before ending up seventh in the opening race.

“It shows how small things have an impact,” Cammish says. “It woke me up a bit and I went on from there and went to a different level and dominated all the way to Brands.”

He then took comfortable double wins at Snetterton, Knockhill and Silverstone, securing the title a meeting early.

“At the start of the year people said ‘you wouldn’t be able to do it again’ but if anything we had an even better year,” says Cammish. “To win 12 races out of 16 is quite an achievement.”

As Cammish really hit his stride, Zamparelli had a nightmare sequence of results. The GT Marques racer failed to take another win and only took one more second place as he ended up a distant runner-up in the points – 56 adrift of runaway champion Cammish.

“From Croft onwards we couldn’t find the form again,” admits Zamparelli. “It was a case of I was flat out and couldn’t get any time out of the car and was defending all the time in the races. I feel like we had an issue with the car but we couldn’t find it. The rear was unstable and with all the weight at the rear of the Porsche it should’ve been the most stable. I did what I could with what I had.

“I had a really good fight with Dan at the halfway point and we put him under a bit of pressure. We were robbed of a really good battle – myself, him [Dan], everyone was robbed of a close battle and that’s what was more frustrating really.”

Zamparelli’s poor end to the season meant his second place was under threat from star rookie Charlie Eastwood. The Porsche scholar improved throughout the year, claiming his maiden win in the Brands finale, and ended up just nine points behind Zamparelli.