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Due to the Champ Car/IRL ‘unification’ and the subsequent cancellation of what was to be the next race on the 2008 Star Mazda schedule - the Grand Prix of Houston – the next event on the schedule is two months away, on May 17 at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.

For more information on the Star Mazda Championship and its drivers, as well as the Mazda Motorsports

ladder system, please visit www.starmazda.com and www.mazdausa.com.

On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas on the road-race tracks of America than any other brand of vehicle. At the track, you’ll see MX-5 Miata, RX-8, MAZDA3, MAZDA6, RX-7 and other vintage Mazda models competing, because every Mazda has the Soul of a Sports Car.

For more information on the various Mazda spec series, visit: www.champcaratlantic.com www.starmazda.com

www.skipbarber.com www.mx-5cup.com

Continued from News

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Molecule Formula Mazda Challenge & Star Mazda West Coast Series Opens at Infineon Raceway
Almost 50 cars race green to the flag at first event

The Molecule Formula Mazda Challenge and Star Mazda West Coast Series opened up this weekend at Infineon raceway. The event which was a part of the SCCA Regional weekend saw almost 50 entries. "We chose this particular event as our opening race as it would allow our drivers who have not run with the local SCCA to get used to the club, and would also allow them to see first hand how the club operates," stated Eric McCombs the series administrator. "Michael Smith and Peter Nosler who are both board members of the San Francisco Region SCCA arranged for a group meeting and they were kind enough to allow the participants to share their thoughts on how the program could be improved moving forward." The series has two more weekends planned with the SCCA for 2008.

In Sunday's race, Patrick O'Neill, who had qualified on pole, took off to a commanding lead and never relinquished it. O'Neill drove his red #64 O'Neill Construction Racing Pro Formula Mazda to the overall and PFM win followed by Phenom Racing's Molecule sponsored driver Mike Guasch. World Speed Motorsports driver Jim Mashburn rounded out the PFM podium in his Magma Grills sponsored entry. In the Formula Mazda class Bill Weaver was on pole and took the win followed by Derry O'Donovan, and Stew Tabak. The FE class finishing order was Brandon Aleckson on the top of the podium followed by James Davenport, and Archie Snider.

The Thursday and Friday prior to the weekend saw a contingent of Standing Start coaches out on the corners working with various participants in the series. Eric Freiberg, who is competing in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear with World Speed Motorsports, came out to test on Thursday and spent the balance of the weekend coaching his sister Ashley who was competing in a WSM Standard Formula Mazda. "Ashley is fairly new to racing cars," stated World Speed Motorsports Operations Manager Mark Milazzo, "but she is really doing a great job. In most sessions she was within a second of multi-year champion and local Formula Mazda legend Bill Weaver. Due to a sound violation she had to start at the back of the pack in Sunday's race and she passed more than 20 cars on her way to finishing 4th in the FM class."

Eric Freiberg also spent Sunday morning showing the local Boy Scout troop around his Pro Formula Mazda, and explaining to them the commitment needed to be a competitive driver.

Other notable runs during the race were by Kevin Woods a new driver to the series who was running as good as 4th overall before a sound violation required him to pit and lose a lap late in the race. Sean Prewett who is also new to the series had a great start but hit some oil early on and went off track. He recovered and went on to pass 30 cars before the end of the race.

Vince Gaddini, who has a Pro Formula Mazda being delivered to World Speed Motorsports this week, was racing most of the event with Paul Lahaye and Larry Schnur. Gaddini went on to win in the DSR class. The Molecule Formula Mazda Challenge Series and Star Mazda West Coast Series heads to Thunderhill Raceway next for an exclusive double header with NASA on May 3rd-4th.

JOEL MILLER WINS FROM THE POLE AT

SEBRING IN ROUND ONE OF 2008 STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP

Joel Miller, the new Rocket Rookie of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, checked out to a 6.6-second margin of victory in his first race driving the #20 JDC Motorsports/Skip Barber/K&N Mazda. Finishing 2nd was the #2 qualifier, Britains Charles Hall of at the wheel of the #77 Andersen Racing/Pardoes Solicitors/Allied Mazda. In 3rd was Irishman Peter  Dempsey, piloting the #21 Andersen Racing/Allied Mazda, who moved up from his 6th-place qualifying spot.

Winning the Expert Series (for drivers aged 30 to 44) was Vancouver, B.C.’s Chris Cumming who qualified 18th in his #16 World Speed Motorsports/Inviro Medical Mazda and finished 17th overall.

Winning in the Master Series (for drivers 45 and older) was Chuck Hulse of Yorba Linda, California who qualified 21st in the #12 JDC Motorsports/Silicon Salvage Mazda and moved up to finish 18th overall.

The top-finishing female racer, of the three in the 27-car field, was rookie Kristy Kester, the distaff half of the unique Kester Racing brother/sister duo. Kester, from College Station, Texas, qualified 11th in the #48 Kester Racing/Texas World Speedway/Unifirst Mazda and moved up to finish 8th overall in a remarkable first race.

“First of all I have to thank Mazda and the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder for the sponsorship that got me this ride,” said Miller, a native of Hesperia, California. “Also JDC Motorsports and my engineer Rick Cameron for a flawless car. The only problem in the race was one I caused by bobbling the standing start just a bit, allowing Charles Hall to get ahead of me for the first two turns. But I was able to pass him in turn 3 and it was clear sailing from there. I don’t expect to win them all, consistent top-5 finishes is how you win a championship, but it sure tastes sweet to win in my first-ever Star Mazda Championship race.”

Round One of the 2008 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, though a substantial demonstration of young (and not so young) driving talent and the reliability of the Mazda Renesis Rotary engine, was a remarkably low-drama affair that went green the entire way with only a few bobbles in the series’ first-ever standing start – along with a couple of spins and one or two minor bumping incidents that were cleared with local yellows.

Aside from watching a high-caliber driving demonstration by Miller, the primary entertainment was the intermittently tight battle between Hall, Dempsey and 4th-place finisher Alex Ardoin the Lafayette, Louisiana driver of the #51 Mundill Racing/Oral and Facial Surgery Center Mazda.

Dempsey finished 1.416 seconds behind Hall, but Ardoin, who won the final round of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and finished 6th in the championship,crossed the finish line less than 2/10ths of a second behind Dempsey.

Rounding out the top-5 was the youngest driver in the field, 17 year-old Tom Gladdis of Gibraltar. Gladdis, in the fast group throughout practice earlier in the week, qualified 9th in the #5 Andersen Racing/Law Firm of Marrache & Co./Allied Mazda and moved up through the field in the closing laps.

Nick   Haye, a resident of Huntington Beach, California and veteran of the 2007 Star Mazda season who finished 4th in the championship battle qualified 4th in the #4 JDC Motorsports/Quantum Sphere/All-Star Ice Mazda. He ran in 4th for most of the race, but slipped back in the closing laps to finish 6th.

Retirements of note include Brazilian driver Ernesto Otero, who put his #18 JDC Motorsports/Brazilian Green Beef Mazda third on the grid but got into a terminal wheel-bumping incident with another car on lap 3 and was knocked out of the race and relegated to a 26th-place finish.

Yannick Hofman, resident of both Canada and France, ran two Star Mazda races in 2007, finishing 5th in his home-province event in Trois Rivierès, Quebec. That experience put him among the front-runners in practice, but he qualified 10th in

the #00 Andersen Racing/Jig-A-Loo/Pep Boys Mazda, stalled the car on the starting line and then damaged his front wing in a perhaps optimistic passing attempt. Two laps in the pits for repairs before rejoining the fray left him in 25th at the finish

So, although Joel Miller dominated Sebring with a convincing demonstration that he is stepping surely and swiftly down the path blazed by his JDC predecessor, and 2007 Star Mazda Champion, Dane Cameron, it is equally apparent that 2008 will be a hard-fought season in the Star Mazda Championship with a rare diversity of drivers and depth of talent.

That talent will be displayed again on the SPEED TV broadcast of the Star Mazda Sebring race, scheduled to air Sunday, March 30 from 3 to 4 pm. For additional information about Star Mazda race broadcasts, log on to www.speedtv.com/programs.

Result

1.Joel Miller

2 .Charles Hall +6.696

3.Peter Dempsey  +8.112