CLARINGTON, Ontario – The 2016 Ultra94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama season got off to an ideal start for Mark Motors as drivers Zacharie Robichon and Marco Cirone combined to claim three wins and five podium results in the weekend’s two races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
ROBICHON WINS IN FIRST PORSCHE GT3 CUP CANADA RACE WEEKEND
Robichon, who hails from Mark Motors Racing’s hometown of Ottawa, Ontario, finished 3rd in the No. 78 Mark Motors Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in Saturday’s race 1 after a hard-fought battle with two talented young Canadian racers, Daniel Morad and Scott Hargrove. Robichon regarded the 45-minute race as a learning experience.
“I made a lot of mistakes at the beginning of the race and I was frustrated with myself,” Robichon explains. “I let them get two seconds ahead of me. At that point I had to talk to myself down the back straight and say, ‘Listen, you’ve earned your way here, just relax.’ At that point I was actually able to keep up and catch up to them.
“In the middle of the race, we had the fastest car. The Mark Motors team did a fantastic job getting the car ready. I think that yesterday if I hadn’t made those mistakes at the beginning I would have been right in there with Scott and Daniel the whole race.”
It didn’t take Robichon to learn from those mistakes. In Sunday’s second race of the weekend, he started third behind Hargrove and Morad. On the first lap, the two front-row starters crashed in turn 2 and took each other out of the running, leaving clear sailing for Robichon. He went on to build a 20-second gap on the entire field on route to earning his maiden win in the series on his very first weekend in competition.
“This is not the way you want to win,” Robichon says, referring to the first-lap incident. “You want to race to victory. But a win is a win, and I’ll take it anyway.
“It’s unfortunate what happened, but that’s racing. Neither of those guys wanted to give an inch of room, so I was there to benefit and keep my nose clean out of their shenanigans and get out front.”
Overall, Robichon is very pleased with his initial effort in Porsche GT3 Cup Canada.
“I don’t think I could ask for a better start, to be honest,” he says.
CIRONE SWEEPS PLATINUM MASTERS VICTORIES, SCORES OVERALL PODIUM
Marco Cirone of Toronto, Ontario, had yet another successful weekend in the No. 88 Mark Motors Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car at his home track of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He swept the weekend in the Platinum Masters class by claiming wins on both Saturday and Sunday, which sets him firmly onto an early path to winning that title once again in 2016.
“I’m really proud to be able to keep up to Zach, Daniel, and Scott because they are some of the best talents coming out of Canada,” Cirone says. “Just to be able to run with them was a big accomplishment for me.”
Cirone also sat on the overall podium for Sunday’s race, scoring a 3rd place finish.
The next two races on the Ultra94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama calendar will take place at the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal on June 10 to 12, 2016.
About Mark Motors Racing
Mark Motors Racing is an amateur racing team competing at the highest level of sports car racing in North America. As three-time Platinum Masters champions, Mark Motors Racing is dedicated to the growth of Porsche Motorsports in Canada and developing a strong motorsport foundation for creating tomorrow’s champions.
www.markmotorsofottawa.com / Instagram: @MarkMotorsRacing / Twitter: @MarkMotors_Race