Repeat Sweep: De Angelis Continues Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama Dominance at Indy Toronto with Third Consecutive Weekend Sweep

July 14, 2019
Staff Report
IMSA Wire Service

TORONTO – Roman De Angelis is in a league of his own this year in
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama, as showcased once
again this past weekend at Indy Toronto.
In a rare statistical feat, De Angelis started from the pole position in
both rounds of the doubleheader weekend after having posted the
two fastest laps in Saturday’s qualifying- with both Laps 8 and 9 being
an identical time of one minute, 12.966 seconds. The first instance
scored him the pole for Race 1 on Saturday, while the second scored
him the pole for Race 2 – for which the grid is set by either a driver’s
second quickest qualifying lap or their fastest lap in Race 1 – whichever
is fastest. 
On Sunday, the 18-year-old from Belle River, Ontario, took ownership
of the lead from the drop of the green flag and proceeded on to
another flag-to-flag victory as he did on Saturday. It was De Angelis’
third consecutive weekend sweep in GT3 Cup Challenge Canada and
seventh consecutive victory through eight rounds of the season.
As De Angelis describes, the only difference between his Race 1 win
on Saturday and his Race 2 victory on Sunday was the weather.
Drivers faced mixed weather conditions for the first race of the
doubleheader, while Sunday offered sunny skies and higher
temperatures.
“The heat definitely plays a factor when you’re driving, especially
when there’s not a lot going on around you,” said De Angelis. “It was
kind of quiet out there today, so trying to keep focused with the heat.
You’re sweating and we’re losing our energy pretty much the whole
time. Just trying to keep focused is really difficult.”
With four rounds remaining in the 2019 season, De Angelis holds a
strong lead in the GT3 Cup Challenge Canada championship. The
next two rounds will take place at Road America on August 2 – 4,
which will be the second and final joint event of the year with
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, which De Angelis
also competes in. The first came in June at the Canadian Grand Prix
in Montreal, which was De Angelis first doubleheader victory of
the GT3 Cup Challenge Canada season.
“I’m looking forward to Road America. I think Montreal was really
fun and a great event for us in general, so hopefully we can do the
same thing we did there. It’s always fun when the Americans and
the Canadians go at it together, especially being part of both, so
I’m really looking forward to that.”
Finishing second on the podium in both races at Indy Toronto was
Jeff Kingsley in the No. 16 Policaro Motorsport Porsche.
Third on the leader board and also earning the Yokohama Tire
Hard Charger Award for gaining the most positions during the
45-minute race was Michael Di Meo in the No. 96 Porsche for
Open Road Racing. Di Meo, at his hometown event, started seventh
on the grid but ended up on the podium, even despite a scratch
against the wall to start the race.
“We started seventh and in a field where all the cars are so closely
matched, it’s tough to even gain one position in a race, let alone we
came back to third,” said Di Meo. “We just drove hard, never lost
focus even though we hit the wall pretty good in the first couple laps.
I thought the car was going to be pretty mangled because it felt like
a hard hit. The guys came on the radio and just said to stay calm, let
the race come to you and drive it, whatever it is, just drive it and
keep going.
“One by one we got lucky and we picked some people off and
maintained the pace, which I thought was pretty good despite the
car we had. I couldn’t believe we ended up in third.”
Meanwhile, following in the footsteps of his Mark Motors teammate,
Marco Cirone in the No. 88 Porsche scored his fourth consecutive
Platinum Masters victory, after sweeping the weekend at Canadian
Tire Motorsport Park last week and doing so again this weekend at
Indy Toronto. Cirone is in search of his sixth GT3 Cup Challenge
Canada Platinum Masters championship
“That was fantastic,” said Cirone. “The team as usual gives me an
awesome car. Today I woke up and I said, ‘I’m going to try as hard,
I’m not going to be as timid as I was yesterday considering the
conditions.’ I woke up to drive this morning. I was very aggressive.
I tried to stay as clean as possible and the results were great for us.
Finishing fourth overall and first in Masters, I couldn’t ask for
any better.”
An incident early in the race halted on-track action for about
10 minutes, with the No. 99 Kelly-Moss/AM Motorsports Porsche
Alan Metni scraping the wall and careening into the back of
Patrick Dussault’s No. 77 Lauzon Autosport Porsche. While both
cars made strong impact into the Turn 9 tire barriers, each driver
was able to walk away.
The next two races for Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by
Yokohama at Road America will be streamed live on IMSA.tv over
the course of the weekend on August 2 – 4. Alongside GT3 Cup
Challenge USA, the first race of the weekend is scheduled for
Saturday, August 3 at 11:30 a.m. ET, with Race 2 on Sunday at
9:40 a.m. The finale rounds of the 2019 GT3 Cup Challenge Canada
season will take place at Circuit Mont-Tremblant on September 27 – 29.
To keep up with GT3 Cup Challenge Canada news and updates for the
remainder of the season, please visit IMSA.com or Porsche.com/Canada 
and join the conversation on social media using the hashtags
#GT3Canada and #IMSA.  
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