Starworks Motorsport Seeks Third Straight Victory In Prototype Challenge

Daytona Beach, Florida – Canadian racer Michael Valiante picked an opportune time to take over the points lead in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype class.

Valiante, from Burnaby, British Columbia, and his British co- driver, Richard Westbrook, are carrying the momentum of their second victory of the season in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen last month with them and the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP team across the border for the TUDOR Championship’s only visit to Canada in 2015.

They lead defending TUDOR Championship Prototype class champions Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa, who co-drive the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP for Action Express Racing, by five points, 192-187, going into Sunday’s two-hour and 40-minute race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“This is my home track and we will be doing everything we can to get the win,” said Valiante, who also won earlier this year at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. “Winning would mean a lot for me … it would be very special. Fans should expect an exciting and fast race, and hopefully we will be celebrating a second-consecutive victory on Sunday.”

The race takes the green flag on Sunday at 12:05 a.m. ET, and will be televised live on FOX Sports 1 from noon to 3 p.m. ET.

Also within striking distance of the leaders are Dane Cameron and Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP; Scott Pruett and Joey Hand in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley; and brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP.

Other Prototypes include the No. 60 AERO Ligier JS P2 of Ozz Negri and John Pew; the Claro Video/TracFone DeltaWing DWC13 of Katherine Legge and Memo Rojas; and a pair of Mazda Motorsports Prototypes, the No. 70 for Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito and the No. 07 Castrol/ModSpace entry for Tom Long and Joel Miller.

Starworks Motorsport Seeks Third Straight Win In Prototype Challenge

Renger van der Zande will be reunited with regular co-driver Mirco Schultis in the No. 8 Martini ORECA FLM09, looking for a third-consecutive Prototype Challenge (PC) triumph this weekend for Starworks Motorsport.

Van der Zande and Schultis teamed to give Starworks its first victory of the season at Detroit, with Alex Popow and Mike Hedlund sharing the class victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

The points battle is heating up in PC. Tom Kimber-Smith and Mike Guasch finished second at Watkins Glen in the No. 62 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Cuttwood entry to close to within one point of defending class champions Jon Bennett and Colin Braun, 157-156, after the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources drivers finished fourth.

The PC class features a pair of Canadians. Chris Cumming of Vancouver won earlier this year at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira, and the duo will again drive the No. 11 AutoMaxUSA ORECA this Sunday.

Mikhail Goikhberg of Vancouver will co-drive with rising star Matt McMurry this weekend for JDC/Miller Motorsports in the No. 85 UndergroundCellar.com entry. Goikhberg is classified third in the PC standings behind the pairings of Bennett/Braun and Guasch/Kimber-Smith and well within striking distance with 149 points, just eight behind the leaders.

Another car to watch is the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA FLM09 of Conor Daly and James French. Daly, a two-time Indianapolis 500 competitor in the Verizon IndyCar Series, led the opening 17 laps in the Sahlen’s Six Hours.

This weekend’s race marks the return of the PC class to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park after a year’s absence. The class last raced at the facility as part of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.

Practice for the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by the Hawk begins at 11:20 a.m. ET on Friday, with qualifying set for Saturday at 4:40 p.m. ET.

Canadians In BOLD