Ostella Salvages 12th in 100th IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge
WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 29, 2013) – Rookie Canadian driver David Ostella chose the 100th race of the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama series to be his first in the series. This weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is his first event this season in the US-based championship and the first at Watkins Glen International for the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by MichelinSeries points leader.
“My first time at Watkins Glen has been pretty awesome,” exclaimed the 21-year-old Ontario native. “It’s a great circuit and Porsche has an amazing record here at The Glen, so it’s a perfect place to celebrate the 100th race in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge.”
Ostella started today’s historic 100th race in sixth position at the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course in upstate New York. Ostella was the top qualifier from the GT3 Cup Challenge Canada.
After a clean start by the 28-car field, Ostella jumped to third position by the time he cleared Turn 1. The leaders set a blistering pace through Turns 2, 3, and 4 and headed to the Inner Loop (aka, Bus Stop) where trouble found the Global Precast No. 13 car.
Ostella works third position in Turn 1
“Today’s race definitely did not go as planned,” Ostella said. “Started P6 as the sun came out and started drying the track. Off the start, I ended up third by the end of Turn 1. As I was going into the Bus Stop, another car dove to the inside and hit the wet curbing and slid into me. That put us to the back of the field at that point.”
Undeterred, the Canadian would use the rest of the 100th race of the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge series to get valuable track time.
Ostella hustles his Porsche GT3 Cup car after Lap 1 incident
“I figured after that I would just try to get some laps in, figure out the line, and build some good speed,” Ostella continued. “At least if tomorrow is another dry race I got some good laps in and some good time on the track here at Watkins Glen. I’m disappointed we couldn’t do better for our sponsor Global Precast in IMSA’s 100th race in the series, but we recovered well to finish 12th, so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. We start near the front and can go for the win.”
David Ostella will start fifth in Race 2 tomorrow, June 30 at 9:00 a.m. ET as part of the GRAND-AM weekend in his SpeedMerchants Porsche GT3 Cup car.
Though disappointed, Ostella still found plenty of time to give an interested child a tour of his Porsche GT3 Cup cockpit immediately following today's race.