8Star Motorsports will have a new, but familiar driver in the Grand-Am paddock when when Burnaby's Michael Valiante gets behind the wheel of its Corvette Daytona Prototype for the Diamond Cellar Classic at Mid-Ohio on June 14-15.
Valiante will partner with Pedro Lamy in the No. 3 entry, as full-season driver Stephane Sarrazin will be unavailable due to his duties at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota.
Valiante, along with Brazilian ace Rafa Matos both got their first taste of 8Star's Corvette DP in a test at Sebring earlier this week. Matos heads into Mid-Ohio as the defending race winner, having scored top honors last year in a Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP with Ricard Westbroook.
"We worked really well together and the car got better every time we went out," Valiante said of his first test with 8Star. "Hopefully, today's test and the races between now and then will give the team a great baseline to start with and be really competitive.
"Enzo's got a real drive and push to make 8Star Motorsports a top-level team and I think they've got all the ingredients to make a successful, championship-winning team. Now it's just a matter of building a database of knowledge with the car and today's test was a great start."
While no word has been given on Matos' possible future involvement, the Florida-based squad plans to debut its second car at the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, with Enzo Potolicchio likely being one of the drivers.
"I think having Valiante here was definitely a positive because of the feedback he was able to give us from all his DP experience," Potolicchio added. "The car is a lot quicker and lot easier to driver ... it's more connected front to rear. We showed a lot of speed here at Sebring and will have a better car next week at Detroit."
Also at the private test this week were a pair or Mazda6s from SpeedSource and the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford, which saw Mike Hedlund and Nick Mancuso try their hand at a DP, with some help from team veteran Ryan Dalziel.
Valiante will race for Michael Shanks Racing at the Rolex Series Chevrolet GRAND-AM 200 in Detroit on June 1.
