Marcelli Tackles A New Challenge in Continental Tire Challenge

It was a near-miss for the unofficial Team Canada entry at the previous Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge round at VIRginia International Raceway. After missing out on a podium finish by a scant nine seconds, Canadians Kyle Marcelli and Martin Barkey will be looking for their first top-three finish when they co-drive the No. 80 MBRP Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R at Circuit of The Americas on Friday, Sept. 18.

The fifth-place finish for the Toronto-based Mantella Autosport team in the Grand Sport (GS) class at VIR came despite a mid-race incident that saw the Camaro knocked off the track.Marcellli, who had five victories in the American Le Mans Series’ LMPC class, transitioned to the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge full time for the 2014 season as the  co-driver for Barkey. They scored their first podium together that season, and transitioned to the Mantella Autosport team to drive the No. 80 MBRP Camaro Z/28.R for 2015.Transitioning to the Z/28.R was an opportunity and a challenge that Marcelli welcomed, and nearly scoring the podium at VIR demonstrated the competitiveness of the program this year. “It’s been a real pleasure to be aligned with Mantella Autosport, Pratt & Miller and GM this year,” said Marcelli. “The Camaro itself is a great road car and an impressive race car. GM is obviously very heavily invested in the success of the car on the track, and on the street. It’s a favorite car for many of the [Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge] fans, and as a large number of Camaro owners come to the races, we are fortunate to meet them.  “To be a part of this program is special. Since establishing a career in professional sports car racing, my goal has always been to become a factory race driver, and this is a positive step in the right direction for my career. And, as a bonus, MBRP builds exhaust systems for Camaros so it’s a great marketing opportunity – and we actually use the MBRP Performance Exhaust on the race car.”With their track record over the previous races, there is another yard stick that Marcelli and his team measure themselves against, and that is the sister Camaros run by championship leaders Stevenson Motorsports.“In between races, our engineer and manager has regular communication with Stevenson Motorsports and Pratt & Miller,” Marcelli said. “We are quite fortunate for this, as it helps to speed up our learning curve. We rate ourselves against Stevenson as they are a proven organization with a lot of success. But of course, we are competitors, and you always want to beat your competition. When you look at the pace that we have been able to achieve, I think we have done a good job against them, but there is always room for improvement.”Marcelli and Barkey have scored several strong results as of late and Marcelli is confident as the series heads to the final two races of the season at Circuit of The Americas and Road Atlanta. Marcelli remains upbeat about its potential, citing its braking performance and high-speed cornering as its main strengths.The last two seasons have also been a transition for Barkey. What started with Marcelli providing driver coaching Mosport International Raceway turned into a partnership where Barkey’s company, MBRP Performance Exhaust, became a partner of Marcelli’s ALMS program. With Marcelli’s assistance, Barkey progressed from regional racing to the Porsche GT3 Cup Canada to the Continental Tire Challenge in 2014. However, with Marcelli’s time in the ALMS being exclusively in the Pro-Am LMPC class, he was able to accelerate Barkey’s learning curve as he made the jump to the Continental Tire Challenge.“This is the fourth year that Martin and I have worked together,” said Marcelli. “We are one of the very few true Pro-Am driver lineups in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.   That makes it a difficult task in terms of fighting for podiums, but we are up for the challenge and we’ve been really pleased with our results. “With a Pro-Am lineup, we need to find a balance between the amount of time for Martin to get up to speed, and for me to develop and set up the car. But in the race, we share equal responsibility in the outcome of our race result – which is what makes this a team effort. Coaching Martin on these things is a big part of my job. He made significant gains from 2014 to 2015, and even more gains from Daytona until now.”With two races remaining, Marcelli and Barkey are seventh in the GS driver’s championship with 187 points. The next round of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at Circuit of The Americas will be streamed live on Friday, Sept. 18 at 1:40 p.m. ET on IMSA.com with a television broadcast on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1.