Mantella Autosport Earns Top-Five Finish at Sebring

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Mantella Autosport placed both the No. 8 and No. 80 Camaro Z/28.R cars in the top 10 of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge on Friday at Sebring International Raceway.

 

The No. 80 of Kyle Marcelli and Martin Barkey finished fourth while the No. 8 of Anthony Mantella and Mark Wilkins finished seventh in the Grand Sport class of the Microsoft Visual Studio 150.

 

The Mantella Autosport team was penalty-free after a hectic race with three cautions. It was a welcome improvement from the season-opening race Jan. 27 at Daytona, where the No. 8 finished ninth and the No. 80 placed 11th after being assessed a drive-through penalty.

  

At Sebring, Mantella Autosport Lead Engineer Andrew Wojteczko was hopeful the team‘s call for two tires on the No. 8 would have led to a better result but was happy to collect the points from top-10 finishes.

 

“It‘s a huge improvement coming from Daytona,” Wojteczko said. “Still good points there, but this is the direction we want to be going, and we will continue to improve from here. I‘m thrilled with everybody on the team; the guys really did a great job.

 

“Penalty-free, and that‘s a key to succeeding in this series, no doubt.

 

“As far as setup on the 8 car, we just didn‘t have what we wanted at the end. With our strategy, I was hoping to see a yellow in that last run, and it just didn‘t work out. We did a short fuel top off and changed two tires with the idea being to gain a bunch of track position, and we did. But we really needed a yellow flag to make that strategy successful. Two top-10results are great for points, however, and I am really proud of the whole team.”

 

The No. 80 of Marcelli and Barkey, engineered by Sasha Anis, ran strong throughout the two-hour, 30-minute race. The car lost a little ground when Barkey was pushed off track to avoid an incident.

 

“I had a situation coming into (Turn) 13,” Barkey said. “A GS and an ST car were battling for position, and as I tried getting around them, the left side of the car went off the grass. I just couldn’t save it, so in an effort to keep the car in one piece, I let it run off the track and found my way cleanly back onto the track. I lost one position in class, so not a big deal but not what we wanted. I lost some time but saved the car. Kyle and Sasha did a great job with the race. I‘m really happy with our result.“

  

Marcelli took over at the wheel for Barkey halfway through the race in 10th position. Marcelli led a steady charge to the front of the pack,and as the clock wound down, he was forced to back off from third place to conserve fuel. With enough distance between his Camaro Z/28.R and the fifth-place car, he had a smooth ride to the finish line.

 

“It sure would have been nice to have Team Chevy as a one-two-three (finish),” Marcelli said. “But three in the top four is pretty close. I‘m very pleased with Mantella Autosport. I‘m very pleased with our Camaro Z/28.R. We‘ve done a lot of testing here. And we‘ve done a lot of testing on old tires and also new tires, so we were really, really confident going into this race.

 

“I knew we were going to have a shot at a result providing everything went well, and it kind of worked out that way. I got in the car in either P9 or P10, and our strategy worked out actually quite well. I had fresher tires than everyone in front of me, and I knew I had to take advantage of that.

 

“When the race went green, we were really aggressive and earned five spots on the first two laps. That got us to about P4, and then we just kind of held that position. For the last half an hour, we had to go into fuel conservation mode. We weren‘t sure the car would make it through to the end without applying that strategy, and I had a nice 10-second lead on the car behind me, so we just kind of went on cruise mode.“

 

The No. 8 of Mantella and Wilkins, like their teammates, had a very strong start. But they had to fight to hold position at the end. With track temperatures soaring higher than 100 degrees and only two new tires, Wilkins battled in the last minutes of the race, climbing up the ranks while sliding around the slick, hot track.

 

“When I went out, we gambled a little as far as tires were concerned,” Wilkins said. “We decided to take two instead of four to try to get some track position back without losing too much time in the pits. Unfortunately, that wasn‘t the call we needed to gain the ground that we wanted, but that was the call Andrew and I made together.

 

“We thought two tires would be enough, and we thought maybe we could hold them off. But it‘s a hot day, and we ran out of tires. We just tried to hang on the best we could in order to get the points. Anthony had a great stint in the driver’s seat; he did an awesome job. He ran right up near the front and had great pace. My hat‘s off to him.“

 

Team owner and driver Mantella started the race 11th and took the No. 8 Camaro Z/28.R straight to the front of the pack. Diligently weaving his way through traffic, Mantella spent most of his time at the front of the field, even leading the GS class.

 

Though the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge event is not an endurance race, the bumpy, 17-turn, 3.74-mile Sebring circuit is tough enough on both the car and driver to make it feel like one. Mantella felt energized about the performance and development of his entire team.

 

“This was definitely my strongest performance of the year, although it‘s only the second race,” Mantella said. “My fitness is really good. I feel like I literally could have done a second stint. The car was great; the guys did an excellent job. Mark drove a great race, and Andrew did an incredible job, as well. Of course, congratulations are in order for my teammates Martin, Kyle and Sasha. We are all looking to have a championship season.”

 

Mantella Autosport competes next in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge on May 2 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.

 

For more information on Mantella Autosport, visit mantellaautosport.com and follow the team socially on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

For more information on Mantella Autosport,visit  mantellaautosport.com. For updates, follow the team on Facebook and Twitter. To keep up with Team Chevy, follow the hashtag #TeamChevy AND @TeamChevy.  

Adam Sinclair
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