| June 6, 2019 Staff Report IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – There’s no shortage of excitement whenever the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama get on the racetrack together, as they will do for the first time in 2019 at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. A total of 39 Porsche racecars between GT3 Cup Challenge Canada and GT3 Cup Challenge USA are set to take the grid for a pair of 30-minute races – the first on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and the second on Sunday at 10:15 a.m. before the F1 race. Timing and scoring for both rounds will be available at www.scoring.imsa.com. Fans can follow along with GT3 Cup Challenge this weekend and throughout the season on IMSA.com,Porsche.com/Canada and with the hashtags #IMSA, #GT3Canada and #GT3USA on social media. Here’s a quick look at both championships heading into the weekend: Back to the Big Stage: Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama Returns to Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal Drivers in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama are primed for their biggest event of the season this weekend at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as part of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada. For the third and fourth rounds of the 2019 GT3 Cup Challenge Canada season, 16 drivers will be joined by their American counterparts, as part of a combined race weekend for the two series in front of an expected crowd of nearly 100,000. The GT3 Cup Challenge Canada season kicked off three weeks ago at Ontario’s Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, providing thrilling on-track action that fans are sure to experience this weekend. One driver to watch is Jeff Kingsley in the No. 16 Policaro Motorsport Porsche, who led flag to flag in Round 1 at CTMP for his first career GT3 Cup Challenge Canada victory. This weekend, Kingsley will earn points towards both GT3 Cup championships, as he also competes in the United States. Taking the second victory, however, was a face that Montreal fans are familiar with – Roman De Angelis in the No. 79 Porsche for Mark Motors Racing. The 18-year-old scored his first GT3 Cup Challenge Canada Platinum class victory at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2018 after winning the Gold class championship in 2017. “Going back to Montreal is always something I look forward to every year and especially this year with the U.S. series coming up to my home country for some fun,” said De Angelis. “Coming off a huge win for myself and the Mark Motors team there last year makes me even more excited to hopefully go in and do it again at a track we’ve had so much success on. “It’s such a historic place with an amazing atmosphere with the F1 fans and the always amazing Canadian racing fans. It truly makes what we do out there so much more enjoyable and makes winning that much more special.” The second event weekend of GT3 Cup Challenge Canada is a welcome home for the Quebecois in the field, such as Lauzon Autosport teammates Patrick Dussault and Etienne Borgeat. Dussault in the No. 77 Porsche is coming off his best career finish in the series – second in Round 2 at CTMP – and is looking to gain momentum for a championship run. Borgeat, meanwhile, returns to Montreal after a record-setting visit in 2018. With two overall podiums and two Platinum Masters podiums last year, Borgeat set the Canadian Grand Prix record for the most podium finishes by a driver in one weekend. Quebec locals Jean Audet in the No. 67 Grand TIMES Hotel Porsche and Martin Harvey in the No. 08 Wingho Racing Porsche also will be racing in front of their home crowd. Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama Returns to Montreal for First Time Since 2016 A pair of Canadian drivers will lead the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama back to Canada for the series’ first race north of the border since 2016 in this weekend’s combined race with the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Eighteen-year-old Roman De Angelis, from Belle River, Ontario, is the early points leader in the GT3 Cup Challenge USA Platinum Cup point standings for Porsche GT3 Cup cars built between 2017 and 2019. De Angelis has won three of the season’s four races in the No. 79 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche, sweeping the season-opening doubleheader weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in April, and winning the second race of last month’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course doubleheader. As a result, De Angelis holds a 10-point advantage in the standings over Red Deer, Alberta’s Parker Thompson, who scored his first GT3 Cup Challenge USA victory in the first race at Mid-Ohio in the No. 3 JDX Racing Porsche. Thompson and De Angelis are the only two drivers to have finished on the Platinum Cup podium in all four GT3 Cup Challenge USA races to date. They’re also two of four drivers who are competing in both the GT3 Cup Challenge USA and Canada series this year. Thompson’s JDX Racing teammate, Jeff Kingsley – yet another Canadian who hails from Ajax, Ontario – also is pulling double duty. Kingsley is currently fourth in the GT3 Cup Challenge USA Platinum Cup standings behind Texas teenager Riley Dickinson in the No. 53 Moorespeed Porsche. Alan Metni, from Austin, Texas, won the 2018 Platinum Cup Masters championship in GT3 Cup Challenge USA for drivers 45 years of age and over, and also is competing in both the U.S. and Canadian series this season. Metni currently leads the 2019 GT3 Cup Challenge USA Platinum Masters standings, matching his Kelly-Moss teammate De Angelis’ record of three wins in four races in the No. 99 AM Motorsports/Kelly-Moss Porsche. Metni has an 18-point lead, 135-117, over Fred Poordad in the GT3 Cup Challenge USA Platinum Masters standings. Poordad drove the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche to the victory in Race 1 at Mid-Ohio after Metni swept both wins at Barber. Metni returned to the top step of the podium in Race 2 at Mid-Ohio. David Baker, the 2017 GT3 Cup Challenge USA Platinum Masters champion, is currently third in the standings with 110 points for the No. 56 Topp Racing Porsche team. In the GT3 Cup Challenge USA Gold Cup class for Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars built between 2014 and 2016, Puerto Rican driver Sebastian Carazo leads the way in the No. 27 NGT Motorsport entry. Carazo also has three wins from the first four races, sweeping both races at Mid-Ohio and winning the first race at Barber. He is 12 points ahead (153-123) of yet another Kelly-Moss driver, Indianapolis’ Kurt Fazekas in the No. 52 Porsche, who won Race 2 at Barber. Rob Ferriol, from Sumter, South Carolina, sits third in the Gold Cup standings with 118 points. Beginning with this weekend’s Montreal event, Ferriol has joined Moorespeed and will drive the No. 5 Porsche as a teammate to Dickinson. |
