Quebecois driver Valérie Chiasson, who lives in Luxembourg,  returned to competition this weekend when she took part in the Canadian Porsche GT3 Cup at Canadian Grand Prix on Montreal’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve finishing in the top ten on her Saturday race, and 12th overall on Sunday. 

This year, Valérie competes in the Gold class, for older cars that are usually two seconds per lap slower than the 2017 GT3 models. 

At the wheel of her Total Canada Porsche 911 GT3 Cup prepared by Mark Motors Racing, Chiasson had to re-familiarise herself with the Canadian Porsche Cup series after only competing in European Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux events so far this season.  

“I’m using a car in the Gold Class, for GT3 Cup models prior to 2017. The quality of the preparation by Mark Motors Racing was perfect but understandably, it’s impossible for a car in this category to vie for the top overall”, explained Chiasson. 

Nevertheless, ahead of the first race on Saturday, she qualified in thirteenth overall and second in Gold Class. “I had a good start and gained three spots on the first turn. Following that, there was a caution period as a result of an incident in the peloton and I lost two places. I actually think one of two of the drivers didn’t heed the yellow flags indicating that nobody could pass, but they weren’t penalised”, she said, adding. “It didn’t affect me much as I was able to overtake them as soon as the race was back on”.

Chiasson found herself back on the podium at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, once again after being the first female driver to climb onto an overall podium at the Canadian Grand Prix, in 2015. "It was an amazing feeling to be on a Canadian Grand Prix podium. I really attacked from start to finish, to earn and defend my position in this race, so this tastes particularly good", she said. 

On Sunday, Chiasson started from fourteenth spot. Slowed down during several laps because of an incident, the race was too short for her to regain many positions after the fact. She finished twelfth overall and second in Gold Class, making her way once again onto her category’s podium. “My best lap was the last lap of the race and I really believe that had the race been longer (it was only 25 minutes instead of the series’ usual 45 minutes), I would’ve been able to climb one or two more spots but all in all, it was a remarkable weekend”, said Chiasson, who is also the Canadian representative on the FIA’s "Women in Motorsport" Commission, which encourages female participation in motorsports. 

Without having done any testing ahead of time, Chiasson was in her first Canadian Porsche GT3 Cup event of the year. She will be back behind the wheel of the #27 Mark Motors Racing and Total Canada Porsche at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières. Between now and then, she will continue her season in Europe, with her next Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux event scheduled for 1 July at the Zandvoort track in the Netherlands. 

Image: Valérie Chiasson in Canada. © Matthieu Lambert.