Morad Reigns Supreme For First Series Victory In Treacherous Conditions At Toronto - Speedway Digest

Daniel Morad produced a magisterial drive in a pouring rain Sunday on the streets of Toronto, earning his first career Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin victory in just his fourth start in the series.

Morad, from the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Ontario, drove the No. 22 Alegra/Porsche Centre Oakville Motorsports Platinum Cup entry to a 4.184-second victory in Round 4 of the championship. The race was shortened from 45 to 30 minutes due to the rain.

“I just paced myself in the beginning,” Morad said. “I got into a groove, and eventually I found the grip on the track and started to attack, take them one by one. That doesn’t happen every day, one of those runs where you can just walk away from the field in one lap. So it’s a very special moment for me.”

Round 3 winner Scott Hargrove, from Surrey, British Columbia, finished second in the No. 25 OpenRoad Racing Porsche. Championship leader Chris Green, from Montreal, finished third in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Platinum Masters points leader Marco Cirone, from Toronto, rebounded from a seventh-place finish in Round 3 on Saturday to finish fourth in the No. 88 Mark Motors Racing entry. He also was the leading Platinum Masters finisher on the 11-turn, 1.755-mile circuit on the streets of Canada’s largest city.

Cirone’s teammate, 17-year-old Harry Steenbakkers of Ottawa, rounded out the top five finishers in the No. 78 Mark Motors Racing Porsche.

Martin Harvey, from Berthierville, Quebec, completed a weekend sweep in Gold Cup in the No. 08 Wingho Motorsports Porsche.

Hargrove started on the pole and built a six-second lead over Green just six minutes into the race. Morad started third but dropped to fourth behind Cirone on the first lap. But he started to get comfortable with driving his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on the wet track and began to gain ground.

Morad passed Cirone for third 10 minutes into the race and began to gobble chunks of time from Hargrove and Green.

“I got by him at the start,” Cirone said of Morad. “I thought I had a great start, and then he was just all over my mirrors in a couple of laps, I said, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s unbelievable.'”

Morad then set his sights on Green and passed him with 17 minutes left in Turn 6 after the pair made side-by-side contact. Morad then started a breathtaking charge at Hargrove, running laps nearly two seconds quicker than the leader.

Six minutes later, Morad drove around Hargrove for the lead in Turn 8, with 11 minutes, 30 seconds left in the race. Morad then built a 2.5-second lead over the next 1½ laps, padding that lead to 6.071 seconds by the start of the final lap.

It was a stunning arrival for Morad, who won a junior open-wheel national championship in 2007 and a world karting championship in 2010. He also competed in global open-wheel series A1GP and GP3 through 2010. But his last open-wheel drive was in 2011, and he was out of racing from 2012-14 before reviving his career this season in sports cars through the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin.

“I’m very surprised,” Morad said. “This is my first time driving in the rain in a GT car. I had to learn a little bit. I was quick in open wheel (in the rain), and it looks like that transitioned into GT cars.”

The victory came after Morad was eliminated from Round 3 in an accident, placing 14^th. The Alegra/Porsche Centre Oakville Motorsports team worked quickly Saturday evening to repair a broken tie rod and prepare a fast, steady race car for Morad to drive Sunday.

Green expanded his points lead to 74-62 over Cirone with his third-place finish. Morad climbed to third with 59 points.

“We are still thinking about points, and this created a massive points gap this weekend,” Green said.

Platinum Masters

Two-time reigning Platinum Masters champion Cirone bounced back from finishing seventh overall and second in Platinum Masters on Saturday. He built his points lead over second place Tim Sanderson to 78-74 with his third Platinum Masters victory in four starts this season.

After his early duels with Morad, Cirone then settled into a rhythm to maintain steady speed to the finish on a drenched track.

“The track conditions down the straightaway were absolutely treacherous,” Cirone said. “You couldn’t see a bloody thing, and you saw that red fog light right at the last minute, so you had to adjust your braking and have a lot of courage.”

Sanderson, from nearby Pickering, Ontario, followed his Platinum Masters victory Saturday with a second-place finish in the No. 07 Alegra/Porsche Centre Oakville Motorsports entry.

Keith Bass, from Tampa, Florida, finished third in the No. 28 SB Racing Porsche.

Gold Cup

Series veteran Harvey became a serious contender for the Gold Cup championship after his second victory of the season. He followed the same blueprint for victory as Round 3 on Saturday, using his experience to avoid mishaps and stay steady to the finish.

This was Harvey’s first weekend sweep in Gold Cup since the inaugural two rounds of the series in May 2011 at Calabogie Motorsports Park. Harvey also won a race overall, in a Platinum Cup car, later that season at Circuit ICAR near Montreal.

Harvey tiptoed past Gold Cup rivals and series rookies Orey Fidani and Bruno Chapinotti on the first lap and eased away for the rest of the race, beating Fidani to the finish by a lap.

“It is my greatest weekend of all my life,” Harvey said. “Today was a crazy day. It rained all the time. We started in the back, and we couldn’t see. It was just fog, fog, fog. After the first curve, it was, ‘OK, go, go, go!’ and we passed my two competitors. After that, we just stayed on the road to the finish.”

Fidani, from nearby Etobicoke, Ontario, finished second in the No. 13 Pfaff Motorsports entry. Brazil native Chapinotti, from Toronto, placed third in the No. 12 C&C Motorsports Porsche.

Harvey sliced into Fidani’s point lead. Fidani is first with 74 points, Harvey second with 68.

“It should be good, good for the crowd to watch, too,” Fidani said of the percolating Gold Cup championship race. “It will be fun.”

Up Next

Rounds 5 and 6 are scheduled for July 4-5 at Calabogie Motorsports Park in Calabogie, Ontario. For live updates on all the action, follow @IMSALive on Twitter. For live timing, visit scoring.imsa.com.

For more information about Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin, visit www.imsa.com, follow hashtag #GT3CAN @IMSA on Twitter or IMSA on Facebook.

Author
Recent Posts

Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.