Iamunde holds off charging competition to take race 1 win at Bay of Quinte Grand Prix

Shannonville (July 18, 2015) – Michael Iamunde held off polesitter Phil Wang and the rest of his charging competition to claim victory in Millers Oils Formula 1200 race 1 at this weekend’s Bay of Quinte Grand Prix at Shannonville Motorsport Park.

Wang led the field to green and held the top spot early on, but Iamunde executed a pass on lap 3 that he was able make stick until the checkered flag fell.

“I had nobody in front of me, so it was nice and open,” Iamunde said. “It was a good race. I got in front early, so it let me keep clear of what was behind me. I was just able to run a consistent race, and I think that’s what helped me stay in front.”

Wang felt that the conditions, which were very hot and muggy, made it difficult to mount a meaningful challenge as the race wore on.

“It was really hot in that race,” Wang explained. “The cars got really hot during the double yellow. We came to green, and it was impossible to make a move at that point. The cars were slick and it was hard to keep them on the track. I was waiting for Mike to make a mistake, but he was on point the whole race. That’s just how it ended up. Hopefully we can put on a good show tomorrow.”

The sole full course yellow period was to recover the car of Kevin Deevey, which came to a stop on track. Attrition was a consistent theme in this outing with issues ending the day early for a number of drivers, including Kevin Kapelke, Garrett Villano, Jesse Ward, and Matt Garwood.

Dean Curtis of East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania, was the top finisher in Masters class and the top visitor taking part in this Canadian portion of the Formula 1200 Challenge Cup, scoring both achievements in his very first visit to Shannonville. Curtis has been working on rebuilding his car since suffering a massive incident at the beginning of last season and was thrilled with this weekend’s breakthrough.

“All last season we fought handling problems as we did at Mosport earlier this year,” Curtis said. “We finally found the issue, and it is so nice to drive a race car again that is not scary. And it was so nice to get up front and run against these kids. It was a blast.”

Formula 1200 returns to action at the Bay of Quinte Grand Prix on Sunday. Follow live timing of all the weekend’s action at racehero.io.