KIA RACING ANNOUNCES DRIVER LINEUP FOR 2015 PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE SEASON

Courtesy kylemarcelli.com :
Team’s first race with pair of Chevrolet Camaro Z28.Rs brings top-ten finish

January 27, 2015 (Toronto, Ontario) – Friday afternoon’s BMW Performance 200 at Daytona International Speedway, the kickoff to the 2015 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, saw the pair of Mantella Autosport Chevrolet Camaro Z28.Rs in competition for the first time.

After two hours and thirty minutes of racing, the no. 8 Mantella Autosport Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R would finish the race in ninth position in the GS class, with the no. 80 Mantella Autosport / MBRP Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R finishing in 12th position.

The no. 8 Mantella Autosport Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R of Anthony Mantella and Mark Wilkins qualified in 14th position. In the opening lap, Mantella passed several cars but also made minor contact with another car that caused damage to the front of the Camaro. The team elected to keep Mantella on track despite the damage, and repaired it during the car’s first pit stop.

With a long green flag period at the end of the race, Wilkins – who replaced Mantella during the second stop – ran well within the top-ten during his stint but was slowed on the final lap as his Camaro ran low on fuel, and crossed the finish line in ninth position.

“We are beyond fortunate to have a top-ten finish,” said Mantella. “After months of intense preparation and anticipation, I was excited to finally take the green flag at Daytona. I quickly passed a handful of cars in the first lap only to have the front grill and valence break apart because of a small contact. The damage had an immediate effect on my ability to see the track. My engineer Andrew – a strategy genius – determined the best strategy was to keep me on the track until it made sense to pit for repairs.”

“Mark Wilkins continues to inspire and impress me with his masterful driving and I could not possibly be any luckier than to have this man as my co-driver, coach and friend. Wilkins’ tremendous skill carried the Z28.R through the second portion of the race into eighth position almost finishing there until the car had to coast on fumes through the line, placing ninth. My entire team is dedicated to having a successful season and we all work incredibly hard to reach our goals. I am looking forward to Sebring. The Z28.R will perform very well on that track.”

Wilkins was happy with the result in Mantella Autosport’s first race with the Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R

“Anthony drove a strong first stint and kept focused after early contact dislodged the front grill and required repair,” said Wilkins. “I drove hard in an attempt to get back up front, and a top-ten finish is a positive start to the season. We will work hard to come out of the box with a quick car at Sebring where I think the track will be better suited to the car.”

The no. 80 Mantella Autosport / MBRP Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R of Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli started the race in 19th position. Barkey, in his second season in the series, advanced up to eighth position during the opening stint of the race before handing the car over to Marcelli. After taking the car over, Marcelli ran in tenth position before the final pit stop under full course caution. During the stop, his car made contact with a tire left in his pit stall and he was assessed a drive-through penalty.

“Daytona was an opportunity to see just how capable our team really is,” said Barkey. “Our Mantella Autosport / MBRP Chevrolet Camaro Z28 is fast, the team is dedicated, and Kyle and I are capable of running up front. Unfortunately a simple mistake in the pits cost us a much better finish than twelfth. We will now focus on performing our best at Sebring.”

The penalty, assessed when the race returned to green flag conditions, put Marcelli’s car more than 30 seconds behind the race leaders. Despite running a pace similar to the leaders, with no cautions in the final 45 minutes, Marcelli was unable to make up additional track position and finished in twelfth position.

“Unfortunately, we did not have the result that we wanted to start the season with,” said Marcelli. “As we know, at this level of competition, we need to make no mistakes to win. My co-driver Martin Barkey drove a great first stint and it was exciting to watch him battle for position. After taking the wheel of the car at the 45-minute mark, I was pleased with our pace and our position in the top-ten. We know the Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R is a good race car and Mantella Autosport is a good team. Expect us on the podium shortly.”

The next Continental Tire Challenge race will be on Friday, March 20 at Sebring International Raceway.

About Mantella Autosport
Mantella Autosport is an all-Canadian team composed of dedicated individuals with experience at the highest levels of motorsport united to achieve continued success, competing in the 2015 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge series with two Chevrolet Camaro Z28.R race cars. Mantella Autosport’s partners include General Motors, Gulf Oil, MBRP Performance Exhaust and Spyder.

For more information, visit www.mantellaautosport.com.

Media Contact
Efrain Olivares
(818) 254-7196
efrain@shiftgroup.net

Excerpt from Toronto Star’s Norris McDonald’ s column:

 

ALTHOUGH THE BROADCAST ” froze” on me from time to time, I was able to watch pretty much what I wanted of the Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend via live streaming on the Internet. But it still rankled me that NOT ONE Canadian television outlet opted to show the classic race.
One Canadian, Kuno Wittmer, was on a class-winning team in the Rolex (GT Daytona in a Dodge Viper) but there were at least a dozen other Canadians racing in both the headliner and the Continental Tire support race on Friday. James Hinchcliffe was in a Mazda, Scott Maxwell won the pole for the Continental in a Mustang (he was instrumental in the development of the new Ford GT sports car unveiled earlier this month at the Detroit auto show) and Ron Fellows was there in his General Motors ambassador role. The list goes on and on.
Yes, SPEED used to show Daytona, Sebring and the Petiti Le Mans as well as other ALMS/USCC sports car races but since all the cable companies up here conspired to get rid of that channel, those races are no longer available on Canadian television. I’m sure I am not the only auto racing fan who’s bummed out by this.
It’s not that there isn’t interest in sports car racing. The FOX Network in the United States showed the first two hours live before handing the race off to its all-sports FOX Sports Network affiliate for the remaining 22 hours. As we all know, Canadian protectionist legislation has kept FOX SN out of Canada (as it has ESPN) or else we’d all have been able to watch along.
Most of the major auto manufacturers took part in either the Rolex or the Continental Tire Series races this weekend and surely they can’t be too happy that a race in which they’d collectively invested millions of dollars was essentially blacked out in this country.
You could see it in Europe, Asia and South America but you couldn’t see it in Canada. How stupid is that?
How have we come to this state of affairs? I have a theory.
Throughout my life in newspapers, I have known exactly one sports editor who appreciated motorsport. And I have known a lot of sports editors. The rest of them either knew nothing about it, and couldn’t have cared less, or were so biased against it that they effectively sabotaged the coverage. Yes, twice a summer – perhaps three times – they had to acknowledge its existence (Indy 500, Canadian Grand Prix, Honda Indy) but otherwise it was completely off their radar.
I suspect this is the case with TSN and Sportsnet. Between them, they have upwards of a dozen channels but Sunday afternoon at 1:45, Sportsnet had the same curling match on ALL of its channels (lots of choice there, eh?) and TSN had the Raptors on ALL of its channels except one, which carried a program about the winter X Games in Aspen.
The only explanation for this sorry state of affairs is A) a serious lack of imagination and/or B) an out-and-out dislike of motorsport by the people in charge.
It’s always been thus, by the way. Except for the Indy 500 and one or two other races, CART always had to buy the air time in the U.S. And that might eventually be the only way that Ford, Porsche, General Motors, BMW, Mazda, Honda, Chrysler, Ferrari, Audi and Aston Martin will get their racing on Canadian television: rent (or buy) time on TSN or Sportsnet.
Or else wait for one of those all-sports American networks to launch a challenge against the cultural provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Now, THAT would be interesting, wouldn’t it?

 

In the Prototype category :

First #02 Ford Ecoboost DP Ganassi

Second #5 Corvette DP Action Express

Third #10 Corvette DP Wayne Taylor Racing

Canadians

13th #70 SpeedSource Mazda Skyactiv – James Hinchcliffe and Sylvain Tremblay ( Sylvain is doing double duty in the 12th #07 SpeedSource Mazda )

4th #90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP – Michael Valianti

In the Prototype Challenge category :

First #52

Second #16

Third # 54

Canadians

5th #11 RSR Racing Oreca FLM09 – Chris Cumming

8th #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09- James Vance

3rd #54 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09 – Mark Wilkins

6th #61 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09 – Remo Ruscitti

4th #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca FLM09 – Mikhail Goikhberg

In the GTLM category :

First #3 Corvette Racing C7-R

Second #25 BMW BMW Z4 GTE

Third #4 Corvette Racing C7-R

Canadians

2nd #25 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE – Bruno Spengler

6th #98 Aston Martin Racing AM Vantage V8 – Paul Dalla Lana

In the GTD category :

First #93 Viper SRT GT3-R

Second #22 Porsche 911 GT

Third #58 Porsche 911 GT

Canadians

1st #93 Riley Motorsport Viper GT3-R – Kuno Wittmer

8th #009 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage V12 – Max Riddle