RACE 1 SUMMARY

The Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama competitors faced the first of two 30-minute sprint races, Saturday, June 10 at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in support of the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal, Quebec. Friday’s exciting qualifying round saw Scott Hargrove nip the pole position with just minutes remaining in the session in his No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports/Castrol entry.

Hargrove led the field flag-to-flag, but was challenged by the No. 98 Mark Motors entry of Zacharie Robichon who held pace for several laps until nearly the halfway mark, when Hargrove began to pull a strong gap to ultimately take the Platinum Cup win by 2.787 seconds.

Seventeen-year-old Michael de Quesada in the No. 31 Alegra Motorsports car held his position and kept his racecraft clean to challenge Robichon early, but as the race progressed Robichon increased his pace to widen the gap between them and de Quesada ended up on the Platinum podium in third place behind Robichon.

Remo Ruscitti, who suffered a post-qualifying technical infraction in his No. 69 OpenRoad Racing entry and was relegated to start at the rear of the field, made a tremendous drive up through the 18-car field to ultimately finish fourth overall, gaining 14 total positions.

A full-course caution was issued on lap two for contact between the No. 2 of Etienne Borgeat of GT Racing backed by Sesame/Vallier Bistro and the Pfaff Motorsports/Orlando Corporation No. 13 of Orey Fidani. Borgeat was able to continue on, but dropped to 15th position under yellow, and Fidani was forced to retire from competition. The cautionary period lasted 3 laps.

The Platinum Masters championship saw plenty of action as the points gap tightened up with Borgeat faltering early in the race.

The No. 88 of Marco Cirone of Mark Motors Racing took the victory and moved up the standings to challenge Tim Sanderson, who finished in second place in the No. 07 DFC/Speedstar entry backed by Downtown Porsche and Harry Rosen. The two of them are currently tied in championship points.

Shaun McKaigue of Guilford, Ontario in his No. 34 FER-PAL/Pfaff Motorsports entry took the green flag in 11th position on the grid, but made a strong jump on the lap just before the full-course caution to run as high as eighth overall, before ultimately finishing third in the Platinum Masters championship and ninth overall.

In a recurring theme, the No. 78 of 16-year-old Roman De Angelis with Mark Motors steadily hustled his Gold Cup entry neatly through Platinum traffic to take the class win against returning competitor and teammate Valerie Chiasson in the No. 27 Mark Motors/TOTAL Canada car.

Newcomer Metod Topolnik rounded out the Gold podium in his GT Racing No. 76 entry. Hailing from Saint-Lambert, Quebec, this was Topolnik’s first race with the series.

The Yokohama Hard Charger award was earned by Platinum competitor Jim Walker of Tullman Walker Racing as he gained four positions throughout the race to finish in 12th overall.

Qualifying:

There was no shortage of drama for the 30-minute qualifying session on Friday, with strategy and timing playing a key role.

As the green flag dropped, Hargrove and the Pfaff Motorsports crew waited patiently in the pits to see how the on-track action would play out. With only 19 minutes remaining in the session, Hargrove headed out on track to test his mettle against session leaders Robichon and the No. 69 OpenRoad Racing entry of Remo Ruscitti.

On his seventh lap out, Hargrove slowed down to pull a significant gap, and blazed a fast lap to push himself to the front of the field. Not quite satisfied, the Tsawwassen, British Columbia native continued to improve his lap time for a final qualifying lap of 1:38.629 on his ninth lap to put him on the Pole for Saturday’s race.

But the drama continued. With only five minutes remaining in the session, Ruscitti laid down a flier and bumped himself up to second position on his 14th lap and continued to put on speed in hopes of catching Hargrove.

But wait, there was more. With only one minute and thirty seconds left in the session, Robichon pulled a gap and clipped Ruscitti’s time to finish the session on the outside of the front row in second position in class.

And while the Platinum cars were locked in battle throughout the session, the No. 78 of Roman De Angelis and Mark Motors continued to improve his lap times from the morning practice session, landing him in the top spot in the Gold Cup class (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars from model year 2014 through 2016), and eighth position overall on the starting grid.

And in “local news,” the top qualifying Masters classman in Platinum Cup qualifying was the No. 2 of Etienne Borgeat and Sesame/GT Racing of Montreal, Quebec.

RACE 2 SUMMARY

The Ultra 94 GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama competitors rolled out to the grid at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec on Sunday, June 11, in front of a packed house.

As a supporting event for the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada, the series’ second 30-minute sprint race took place at 10:40 a.m. (ET), just a few hours prior to the feature event, and provided the growing crowd with a thrilling show.

Saturday’s race winner and Sunday’s pole winner, Scott Hargrove, took the green flag first and led the field once again in a flag-to-flag sprint to victory in his No. 9 Castrol/Pfaff Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup car. Slowed only by an early caution period on Lap 1, Hargrove and his Pfaff Porsche team once again performed to perfection all weekend, leading all on-track sessions and capturing the top spot in both races in Platinum Cup competition. The 2014 Champion is clearly making his bid for another crown.

Not to be deterred in the hunt for that crown, Ottawa, Ontario’s Zacharie Robichon and his Mark Motors Racing team are doing everything they can in the No. 98 car to stay close to Hargrove in the championship. Sunday marked Robichon’s fourth consecutive second-place finish in four rounds of competition, keeping him in sight of Hargrove in championship points. Like Hargrove, Robichon and his team have been flawless and quick this season.

OpenRoad Racing driver Remo Ruscitti tried to keep pace with the top two GT3 Cup cars starting a row ahead of him, but never quite got a run on the duo in his No. 69 Porsche. Ruscitti had a very impressive run Saturday, gaining 14 positions during the race to finish fourth after starting at the back of the grid for a post-inspection technical infraction. Ruscitti earned a couple of extra and very valuable championship points with his third-place finish. His performance this weekend keeps him in third in the chase for the 2017 championship.

The Platinum Masters championship provided plenty of racing excitement as the top three points contenders continued their battle for year-end recognition.

Taking the top spot in Race 2 was Montreal, Quebec local Etienne Borgeat in the No. 2 GT Racing/Sesame entry. Borgeat claimed his first class win of the season, but not after enduring some early adversity in the race. He and the No. 07 of Tim Sanderson spun on the Lap 4 restart after the first and only caution period, costing Borgeat eight spots on the track, but he never gave up and quickly worked his way back through the field to finish in seventh overall in front of his hometown crowd.

Meanwhile, Marco Cirone battled with Platinum Cup contenders throughout the race to finish second in Masters in his No. 88 Mark Motors Racing Porsche. The series veteran and defending Masters champion maintains his class lead with another strong finish and two class wins this season.

Along with Borgeat, Sanderson had to make up lost ground after the Lap 4 incident dropped him to sixteenth overall. The DFC Motorsport/Speedstar Motorsport driver locked in on Borgeat and the two wily veterans steadily worked their way through Platinum and Gold Cup traffic. Sanderson found himself in a battle with the No. 83 Tullman Walker Racing car of Max Tullman after Borgeat got around Cirone on Lap 10. Sanderson would have to settle for third place in Masters once he passed Tullman on Lap 12 with only a few minutes remaining in the race. His charge toward the front landed him in ninth position overall.

Gold Cup competition among the 2014 to 2016 model year Porsche GT3 Cup cars has its own show of perfection going on this season. Roman De Angelis of Mark Motors Racing has earned every pole position and led every race going into today’s event. Sunday would prove to be nothing new as he kept the No. 78 on point in class to take the top honors in Gold. Normally, De Angelis gives the faster Platinum cars more than most can handle, but the long front and back sections are where the 2017 911 GT3 Cup cars had the advantage. De Angelis still managed a sixth-place finish overall.

The Yokohama Hard Charger Award was won by the driver of the No. 27 Mark Motors/TOTAL Canada Gold Cup car, Valerie Chiasson of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. Chiasson won the award for advancing the most overall positions of the class and, in doing so, took the second spot on the Gold podium. She returned to series competition at Montreal after missing the first weekend of racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park back in May. She has also been competing this year in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux series.

No. 76 GT Racing driver Metod Topolnik found early trouble on Lap 1 in his Porsche GT3 Cup car, but gathered things together enough to find the third spot on today’s Gold Cup podium. It was Tolopnik’s first weekend of competition with the GT3 Cup Challenge Canada series.

Next up on the calendar for the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama is a combined event with the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama series at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen, N.Y. on June 29 – July 2 as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Race Event Quotes

Scott Hargrove – No. 9, Castrol/Pfaff Motorsports – Platinum Cup Winner

“Zach [Robichon] on the start was very, very quick today. I think we were on a little bit different strategies. I was playing to be better at the end of the race and he was very quick at the beginning. So when he was close behind me I had to push really, really hard. I had a couple flat spots on my tires just trying to keep up in the lead so after that I was going down the back straightaway and I could feel the vibration and I knew if I just kept calm that the car was good enough to stay in front and that’s exactly what happened. I think we were able to pull away after about half way through the race. I am just thrilled and thank you to the Pfaff Motorsports guys. It was so much fun this weekend. This is two years in a row that I’ve won both races and you can’t ask for much more than that. And thank you to Castrol for coming on board this year and having me be a part of their organization. I am just thrilled to be here and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next few races.”

Etienne Borgeat – No. 2, GT Racing – Platinum Masters Winner

“I actually had a wild ride yesterday also so I was not really happy about what happened this weekend so far. The car was pretty badly damaged so the guys worked all night on it. And at the start, I tried to do better on the start and unfortunately maybe I was a little too hard going into turn one and I lost the back end and spun. I thought at that time that Tim [Sanderson] actually went by but I realized afterwards that most of the field passed us at that time. And then I was like so mad, just mad because of yesterday and because of today and because how can I come to Montreal – this is my track – I mean I live like half a mile from this place. I need to do something. And I just didn’t do as good as I could. And when the team said [Marco] Cirone who was first at that time, and he was only 30 seconds ahead of me. Thirty seconds? I’m like I can’t catch him and I said ‘I’m on it, I’m on it.’ Lap after lap I was catching up a lot I mean because he was stuck with someone else. Then I passed both of them and my job was to be clean and finish the race. And actually, I’m really happy about the ending of this weekend afterwards… that’s good.”

Roman De Angelis – No. 78, Mark Motors Racing – Gold Cup Winner

“It was much cleaner than yesterday, but I still had to avoid a little bit of contact from Tim [Sanderson] and I think it was Etienne [Borgeat]. But the car came back clean and it was awesome again and we turned really good laps. We made changes to the car and it just improved and we matched our qualifying time with more weight and raced right and it was a really good race and I’m happy with it.”

Valerie Chiasson – No. 27, Mark Motors Racing – Yokohama Hard Charger Award Winner

“I’m really happy because I came back to my favorite team [Mark Motors], you know. It’s good to come back and see everybody. Seriously I was really happy. You know I like to be in Europe but I like to be here as well. You know I have to work in Europe now and have the chance to race over there, but for me to come back here is always the cherry on the sundae. You know it’s true, in Canada it’s really special because every driver is so friendly. I think we are all here for one reason which is for the passion of motorsports and this is what I like and I was really happy to see Porsche Canada as well and IMSA and they are all super people and I really enjoy my time over here.”

Source. LST Marketing