Mid-Ohio has been good to sports car driver Michael Valiante.
The Burnaby professional race car driver nearly duplicated his history-making feat at the Mid-Ohio road course, finishing second in two separate race classes at the Diamond Cellar Classic in Lexington, Ohio last weekend.
Valiante, dubbed the super-sub in Grand American Rolex sports car racing, helped the fledgling 8Star Motorsports racing team to its first-ever podium in the Rolex sports car series, taking the checkered flag in second place in the team's Daytona Prototype Corvette.
Earlier, Valiante also drove the Heart of America Racing Team's Honda Civic Si to a runner-up finish in the Continental Tire street tuner class.
Last year, Valiante made Grand Am series history, winning a Daytona Prototype and sports car challenge street tuner class race on the same day.
"I told my wife, 'We have to move there,'" said Valiante after returning home Monday. "It was a good weekend.
In the feature race, Valiante took over behind the wheel from driver and co-owner Enzo Potolicchio, who qualified the No. 3 Corvette in 11th place, with the car in ninth spot on the 11th circuit of the 110-lap race.
Valiante quickly reeled in three cars in the next 12 laps and then moved up into fifth spot, setting what was the quickest lap of the race in 1: 17.631 before a caution flag allowed him to pit.
Valiante was able to restart in first, a position he held for the next 34 laps before being forced to make a stop for fuel and tires. He regained the track in third spot, and took second when the No. 90 car of Ricky Taylor spun out.
"I led a large portion of the middle of the race, but we had an issue in the pit. If I had the same pitstop as the second-place car, we would have won the race," Valiante said.
Nevertheless, the North Burnaby product closed the gap on eventual race winner Christian Fittipaldi to 1.427 seconds at the checkered flag.
The podium was the first in six starts for the new 8Star Motorspots team, which just began operations in November of 2012.
"We hired the right guy, Valiante, for the team," said Potolicchio in an online team press release. "We knew his quality, and the engineer loves him. The feedback Valiante gives is excellent, so we knew he was going to do well here."
Valiante played down his contribution to the team's history-making finish.
"Enzo's done a great job putting this whole program together, and it's just getting better and better each race," Valiante said in the release. "For me, I was able to get a good jump in the middle stint and pull away from the field. We lost a little time on the last stop, but we had the pace to win today. I think second right now is like winning for this team because we've been pushing so hard to get on the podium."
Valiante will get another opportunity to show the 8Star team what he can do, when he gets behind the wheel of the Corvette at Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen in Watkins Glen, New York in two weeks time.
But more than anything, Valiante, who has driven for as many as five other Grand Am racing teams, wants to prove that he belongs in the elite Rolex series.
"I'm glad I can show I'm quick and deserve to be there, but I want to be in that series full time," he said.
In the street tuner race, Chad Gilsinger qualified the Honda Civic in the second row, and Valiante took over, running the fastest lap in the 81-lap race in a time of 1: 35.288 en route to second place on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio road course.
Valiante will be racing in the same two classes at Watkins Glen.
"It's a challenge, but even in my go-kart days I drove in more than one class," he added.
