Harvey At Home

Subtitle:Gold Cup Title Contender Comfortable On Trois-Rivières Streets

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 29, 2015) – Racing on street circuits sometimes induces high-horsepower claustrophobia for some drivers.

Tight city streets, lined with unyielding concrete barriers just centimeters away from expensive race cars. Hardly any runoff area. No margin for error, a fine line between disaster and success.

It’s enough to germinate the seeds of trepidation in the minds of some drivers. But not Martin Harvey.

Harvey is looking forward to Rounds 7 and 8 of the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin on July 31-Aug. 2 at Trois-Rivières, Quebec, as much or perhaps more than any driver in the field for the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Single-Make Series, for two reasons.

One, these are the only two rounds of the championship in Quebec. Harvey is a proud French-Canadian who lives in Berthierville, Quebec, just 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Trois-Rivières.

Two, Harvey loves the challenge of racing on street circuits in his No. 08 Wingho Motorsport Porsche that he races in the Gold Cup class. These two rounds during the popular Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières (GP3R) have been circled on his calendar since the 2015 schedule was released.

“I like Trois-Rivières,” Harvey said. “Trois-Rivieres is similar to Toronto. It’s a city track, and the wall is very, very near the track. But it’s very nice. It’s inside the city. You have a lot of people. It’s a very, very good track.”

Harvey has very good reason to relish racing on the 10-turn, 2.433-km (1.5207 miles) temporary street circuit at GP3R. He swept Round 3 and 4 on the concrete-lined streets of Toronto in mid-June to assert himself as a contender for the Gold Cup championship this season.

Veteran Harvey is second in the Gold Cup standings with 96 points, just eight behind rookie Orey Fidani. Harvey is one of four drivers to win at least one round in Gold Cup, the most unpredictable of the three classes in the series.

Harvey’s victories at Toronto were his first since 2011, the first year of the championship. It’s an impressive renaissance for a driver who has competed in the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin since its very first event in May 2011 at Calabogie Motorsports Park.

The performance is even more impressive considering Harvey has been racing less than a decade.

Harvey completed a Porsche driving experience nine years ago and decided to start racing in provincial series in a 1985 Porsche 935 Turbo. He stayed in those series and also made occasional Porsche Club of America starts – Harvey is passionate about the German marque – before climbing to the IMSA-sanctioned Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin when it started in 2011.

“We started the series with Shaun (McKaigue), Perry Bortolotti and a couple of other guys (in 2011),” Harvey said. “You have some new young guys this year. It’s good for the series, good competition.

“I love the series. Every car, the engine, the gearbox, everything is similar for everybody. This series, the mix (of cars and drivers) is perfect.”