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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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For 2009, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will feature an 11-weekend, 13-race schedule on major race weekends with American Le Mans, Grand-Am, the Atlantic Championship, NASCAR Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series. Prize money is $1.5 million, including a fully-funded drive in the 2010 Atlantic Championship. Drivers 16 and older are welcome to compete and the Star Mazda Championship also features Expert (30 to 44) and Master (45 and older) classes for more mature racers. The Star Mazda Championship features standing starts, wheel-to-wheel racing at 150 mph and budgets a fraction of other top open-wheel ladder series. iRacing.com is the official racing simulation of the Star Mazda Championship, and one-month free 'virtual test drive' of the Star Mazda open-wheel car is available by going to www.starmazda.com/newdriver.
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ADAM CHRISTODOULOU WINS STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON FINALE AND SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP AT MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA
"It's been an up and down year for me and luckily it ended on an awesome high note," said Christodoulou, the 2008 U.K. Formula Renault champion. "It's just unbelievable; you couldn't have written a TV script about what happened this year. My team, JDC Motorsports and my engineer Rick Cameron have done an awesome job helping me learn all the tracks during my first year racing in America. I definitely felt like I had a boulder to roll up the mountain coming into this race; I'd only secured second in the championship, so I knew that I could take a few risks throughout the race and just push as hard as I could. We did some testing here at this track earlier in the week, and we seemed to struggle at the start of the weekend, but it all seemed to pay off in the race. Thanks so much to all the people and sponsors who've helped me, my Engineer Rick Cameron, who has engineered four of the last six Star Mazda champions, and to my teammate Chris Miller and his father; this is actually their car I've been racing this season, they only lent it to me, but it all seems to have worked out as well as possible." Finishing second, in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer Mazda, was Christodoulou's teammate, Alex Ardoin, who won this at the end of his rookie Star Mazda Championship season in 2007. He also won Round 10 earlier this season on the street circuit at Trois Rivières. Finishing third, driving the #27 Mundill / Trallfa / Colosseum Mazda, was Scandinavian racer Anders Krohn, who won earlier this season on the Milwaukee Mile oval. The other championship that was won in today's race was by Expert Series racer Chris Cumming. Based in Vancouver, B.C., Cumming was the 2009 Expert Series champion and repeated today with a 2nd-in-class, 11th overall finish driving the #16 World Speed Motorsports Mazda. The Expert Series winner in the race was West Coast Star Mazda racer Patrick O'Neill, who finished first in class and 9th overall in his #64 O'Neill Racing/ O'Neill Construction Mazda. The Master Series for drivers 45 and older was clinched in Round 10 at Trois-Rivieres by California racer Mike Guasch who scored six in-class wins driving the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule / MG4 Manufacturing Mazda. Winning the Master Series category in today's race was another California driver, Chuck Hulse, who finished 12th overall in the #12 DF Racing / Silicon Salvage Mazda. In addition, JDC Motorsports, which fielded cars for the top-2 drivers in today's race, won the Team Championship with 366 points. Andersen Racing finished second, followed by Juncos Racing in third. While these winners and champions celebrated their accomplishments, the heaviest price paid during the weekend was by Irish racer Peter Dempsey. Winner of 5 races during the season and the pole-sitter for today's race, Dempsey needed to finish only 7th or better to clinch the championship. However, he was outmaneuvered at the start by the JDC teammates of Christodoulou and Ardoin who slipped by into 1st and 2nd. Shuffled back to 3rd before turn two, Dempsey was then hit from behind by the #2 car of Joel Miller entering the Corkscrew, spinning him off-course and dropping him to last place.
In the points championship, Christodoulou finished 1st with 473 points; his season included three wins, two pole positions and six podium finishes. Dempsey was 2nd with 461 points, five wins (he also scored four wins last year) and five starts from the pole. Conor Daly, the 2008 Skip Barber Pro Series Champion who won his 2009 drive in the Star Mazda Championship courtesy of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder finished third, driving the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda to a record of one win, one pole, four podiums and 416 points. Alex Ardoin finished 4th in the championship with 401 points, one win and four podium finishes; he also finished 4th in last year's championship. Joel Miller, who was the MAZDASPEED Ladder driver in 2008, finished 5th with 390 points, three podiums and five top-5 finishes. Today's 3rd-place finisher, Anders Krohn, finished 6th in the championship with 380 points, one win, one podium, one top-5 and six top-10 finishes. Richard Kent, who won two races this season and won this race from the pole last year, finished 6th in the race and 7th in the championship with 377 points, four poles, and two podiums. The schedule for the 2010 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, along with other exciting announcements about next season will be made in coming days.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca / Round 13 results
PETER 'THE IRISH STEAMROLLER' DEMPSEY SCORES HIS FIFTH STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP VICTORY OF THE YEAR WITH A WIN FROM THE POLE AT ROAD ATLANTA Peter 'The Irish Steamroller' Dempsey, starting from his fourth pole of the year, scored his fifth win of the year in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, leading green-to-checker driving his #3 Juncos Racing / The Collection / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda at the Petit Le Mans Presented by MAZDA6 at Road Atlanta. Dempsey -- who won four races in 2008, only to finish third in the championship after a disastrous race here at Road Atlanta in which he started from the pole and finished 19th after an on-track collision with another car – extends his slim lead in the heated championship battle and provokes an all-the-marbles shootout at the series finale in two weeks at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Dempsey has 444 points to Adam Christodoulou's 429; with 45 points remaining to be won in the final race (44 for a win and one for pole), the 2009 Star Mazda championship will be decided between these two drivers -- with Dempsey only needing to finish 6th or better to clinch the championship… and the fully-funded drive in the 2010 Atlantic Championship, courtesy of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder, that goes with it. Finishing second, 7.7 seconds back, was Conor Daly, driving the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda, with Dempsey's sole remaining title contender, Englishman Adam Christodoulou, rounding out the podium finishers with a 3rd-place drive in the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule / Alpinestars Mazda. Daly, son of racing legend Derek Daly, was the 2008 Skip Barber Pro Series Championship and won his ride in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship courtesy of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder. He has won one race so far this season, from the pole at New Jersey Motorsports Park, finished on the podium five times and is third in the championship with 382 points. Christodoulou, the 2008 UK Formula Renault Champion, has won two races so far this year, including the season-opener at Sebring and Round 3 at Miller Motorsports Park; with six podium finishes this year, he is second in the championship with 429 points. "I can't thank the Juncos Racing team enough for the heroic effort they're making to give me such a good car every weekend, and they gave me a great one today," said Dempsey, who was also the top-finishing driver in the Racing for Kids program and won a cash donation for the local Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. "I got a good start and was able to control the race and pull a bit of a gap, which made it easier for me than having to race while protecting my position. My parents flew in from Ireland to watch me race here in American for the first time this weekend, so I'm really happy with the result. There's still a bit of concern in the fact that the championship isn't won yet, the it all comes down to what happens at Mazda Raceway on October 10, but I feel confident in myself and my team, and we're just going to keep our focus until the job gets done." Rounding out the top-5 were Joel Miller, who finished 4th after starting 3rd in the #2 Andersen Racing / Doug Mockett & Co. / Allied Interior Products Mazda, followed by Alex Ardoin, the Louisiana racer who was the recipient of Dempsey's on-track mistake here last year. Ardoin, who won an emotional victory in Round 10 at Trois-Rivieres, qualified 7th in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer Mazda and moved up to 5th by the finish. Miller, who finished 3rd in the 2008 Star Mazda Championship, is 4th in the 2009 championship battle with 370 points and Ardoin, who finished 4th in last year's championship, is currently sitting in the 5th spot with 361 points. Among the Master (45 and older) and Expert (ages 30-44) Series drivers, Gerry Kraut, the co-owner of JDC Motorsports, persevered despite a drive-through penalty and a first-lap spin to score his third in-class victory of the season driving the #55 JDC Motorsports / Dougherty & Co. / Dougherty Funding LLC Mazda; Kraut started and finished 16th overall. The Master Series Championship has already been clinched by his JDC Motorsports teammate, Californian Mike Guasch, driver of the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda. Chris Cumming, the 2008 Expert Series Champion, also fought his way back from stalling his engine on the grid to score his 7th in-class victory of the year; after qualifying 17th, he moved up to finish 12th overall in the 20-car field. The Expert Series championship will also be decided at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, between Cumming and Japanese racer Toshihiro Deki, driver of the #80 Juncos Racing Mazda. Deki, in his first season of Star Mazda Championship competition, has scored three in-class wins and has 172 points vs. 168 for Cumming.
RICHARD KENT WINS FROM THE POLE AT MOSTPORT TO BECOME THE THIRD MULTI-RACE WINNER OF THE 2009 STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON
"I was pushing hard right from the start and my win was a combination of a good car and good luck," said Kent. "I made a small mistake in turn 5b that allowed Conor to pass me on the outside in turn 8 and I wasn't able to close the gap. When I saw the nose of his car disappear into the grass in Turn 10 about mid-way through the race, I knew the race was mine. Its been an off-and-on season for me, but hopefully this will give me some momentum headed into the final two races and give me a shot at the championship." Finishing second after a spirited drive that saw him start from the outside of the front row, move into the lead, spin and fall back to third, then make a daring pass in the closing laps, was Conor Daly in the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda. Daly, the 2008 Skip Barber Pro Series champion, is racing in Star Mazda this season courtesy of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder scholarship. Finishing third, after qualifying fourth, was Adam Christodoulou in the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule / Alpinestars Mazda. This result was little short of miraculous given that he suffered two major crashes in practice on Thursday. Peter Dempsey, the championship points heading into the race, retained his lead – albeit a slimmer one – with a 4th-place finish in the #3 Juncos Racing / The Collection / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda. And rounding out the top-5 was another stellar performance, Scandinavian racer Anders Krohn, the winner on the Iowa Speedway Oval, who worked his way up through the field from his 13th spot on the starting grid in the #27 Mundill / Trallfa / Colosseum Mazda. Carrying the flag for Canada and Toronto, Ontario fans was native son David Ostella who, like Christodoulou, suffered a major wreck in Thursday testing. The AIM Autosport crew put together a 'Frankenstein' car with bits and pieces from several vehicles to get him back on track and after qualifying 17th in the #71 AIM Autosport/Global Precast Mazda, he rewarded them with a 10th-place finish. Louisiana racer Alex Ardoin, winner of Round 10 at Trois-Rivieres, qualified third in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer Mazda and was a major factor in the fight at the front early on in the race until a spin dropped him to 10th at the finish. Master Series racer (drivers 45 and older) Gerry Kraut put in a superb qualifying performance in the wet morning session to line up 9th on the grid in the #55 JDC Motorsports / Dougherty & Co. / Dougherty Funding LLC Mazda and won his class is his return to competition after a several-race hiatus. Japanese racers Toshihiro Deki, currently leading the Expert Series Championship (drivers 30-44 years old), scored his third in-class victory of the season driving his #80 Mazda for a new team, Juncos Racing. With the outcome of this weekend's race, Peter Dempsey remains in the championship lead with 399 points. Adam Christodoulou closed the gap from 10 points to seven and now has 392. Conor Daly moves from fourth to third in the championship with 342 points and Joel Miller, who started 7th and finished 12th today due to a mechanical problem with his #2 Andersen Racing / Fader Higher Productions / eSoles / Doug Mockett & Co. Mazda, drops from third to fourth with 336 points. Alex Ardoin remains in fifth with 301 points. A win in the Star Mazda Championship is worth 44 points, and with 90 points up for grabs in the remaining two races (88 plus one point each for pole), eight drivers remain mathematically in competition for the championship.
LONG TIME COMING – LOUISIANA RACER ALEX ARDOIN WINS WITH A LAST-LAP PASS IN ROUND 10 OF THE 2009 STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE 40TH RUNNING OF THE GP3R – QUEBEC DRIVER MIKAEL GRENIER RACES FROM 19TH TO FINISH 4TH --
"I really need to thank the JDC Motorsports team, this win is more theirs than mine and without them I wouldn't even be racing, much less taking the podium here in Trois Rivieres," said Ardoin. "We had a really good car in the race, but Rusty was driving extremely well and I had to hope for some re-starts to give me a chance to get by. I got my wish in the last few laps when there was a full-course yellow and when they re-started we were all bunched up tight and had to get it done in one lap before the checkered came out. I've always liked this track and the fans in this town so that makes this victory very special to me." Mitchell, the young Texan who qualified on the pole – the first of his two-season Star Mazda career – led every lap but the last one. He followed perfectly the plan he laid out after qualifying; "Get a good start, pull out a gap and try to run away with it." His plan worked well for most of the race with a 5-car feeding frenzy behind him all slowing each other down and allowing him to open up a lead of three seconds at one point. His second-place finish is the best of his career so far, though he has showed recent strength with a 6th-place finish on the Milwaukee Mile oval and 4th on the 7/8ths mile at Iowa Speedway. Finishing third, and happy to do so after a long string of terrible luck, was Californian Joel Miller. He qualified 5th in the #2 Andersen Racing / Fader Higher Productions / eSoles / Doug Mockett & Co. Mazda and drove an aggressive race to take this third podium finish of the year. Miller was the 2007 Skip Barber Pro Series Champion and moved up to the Star Mazda Championship in 2008 with sponsorship from the Ladder drive, Conor Daly, qualified 7th, ran as high as 4th early in the race, but a late-race accident took him out of contention.
"The Andersen Racing team found the problem we had last night and gave me a really good car for the race so it was possible for me to move up and have a good finish," said Grenier. "I got my tires a little too hot so the final yellow flag laps behind the pace car were good for me to let them cool down and I was able to be very strong at the finish. This is probably my last race of this season, but I hope to come back for a full season with the Andersen Racing team in 2010." The top-finishing Expert Series driver (ages 30-44) was Texan J.W. Roberts, winning in his first race back from becoming a new father in the #65 Team GDT / General Data Tech Mazda. Winning the Master Series (driver 45 and older) was Californian Mike Guasch, who has dominated the class this season with six in-class wins so far driving the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda. Guasch clinched the Master Series title with his victory today. Trois-Rivieres unfortunately marked the end of a three-race winning streak for Peter 'The Irish Steamroller' Dempsey. After winning four races this season on both ovals and road courses, he qualified on the outside of the front row at Trois-Rivieres but had to start from pit lane in last place after a mis-communication with his team resulted in his car not being present before the closing of pre-grid. Dempsey worked his way up to 9th early in the race but a loose nose cone on his #3 Juncos Racing / HOOTERS / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda forced a pit stop during a full-course yellow. In an effort to get him out without going a lap down, the Juncos Racing team sent him out without a nose on the car and the lack of aerodynamics and track position put an end to his hopes of a decent finish.
DOUBLE DEMPSEY – IRISH RACER PETER DEMPSEY SWEEPS BOTH STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP RACES – TWO POLES, TWO WINS – AT THE HARRAH'S AUTOBAHN GRAND PRIX PRESENTED BY MAZDA
Starting on the outside of the front row for both races, and finishing second both times, was Englishman Adam Christodoulou, driver of the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda. He has won two races so far this season (Sebring and Salt Lake City), scored two poles, finished on the podium six times and is second in the championship with 323 points. Among the top-3 finishers, the only variety of the weekend was provided by another Englishman, Richard Kent, who supplanted Saturday's third-place finisher, Conor Daly, in the Sunday results. Kent, driving the (#33 Andersen Racing / Traka / Lafarge / Allied Interior Products Mazda won at New Jersey, started from the pole three times, scored three podium finishes and is 7th in the championship with 255 points. "It was a very tough race for me because Adam (Christodoulou) was pushing me a lot harder than yesterday," said Dempsey, who won four races and finished third in the championship last year. "Fortunately I got an even better start than yesterday and did a good first lap on cold tires to build a little bit of a gap. I just had to try and be consistent from there on, but the Juncos team gave me a great car and the Goodyear tires were just perfect. Yesterday in qualifying it was a lot cooler, so we did change the car just a bit for today's race in the heat of the afternoon, but the changes worked just perfectly. We have a good bit of momentum going at the moment, and the next race on the schedule, Trois Rivieres, was a race I won last year, so we feel like we should be able to keep it going." The consistency of the weekend extended to the Expert (drivers 30 to 44 years old) and Master (45 and older) Series; the Saturday winners, Expert Chris Cumming and Master Mike Guasch, repeated on Sunday. Cumming the 2008 Expert Series Champion, has scored six class wins so far this season driving the #16 Worldspeed Motorsports Mazda and finished 17th today. Cumming, who lives in Vancouver, will miss the next two rounds, both races in Canada, as he prepares to participate in the Ironman Canada event, which takes place on the same date as the Mosport Star Mazda round, August 29. Guasch, who races the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda, leads the Master Series championship with five in-class wins and finished 13th overall today. Rounding out the top-5 in today's event were American Joel Miller, driving the #2 Andersen Racing / Fader Higher Productions / eSoles / Doug Mockett & Co. Mazda, who started and finished 4th, followed by Conor Daly, the 2008 Skip Barber champion and MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder scholarship winner. After finishing 3rd yesterday, today he qualified 6th in the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda and finished 5th. The lone female driver in the field, Skip Barber racer Ashley Freiberg – making an exploratory foray into Star Mazda Championship racing in advance of her 2010 debut season, finished 18th in the #65 GDT Racing / C&D Supply / AKZO NOBEL / AGA Glass Mazda.
Round 9 Results
DEMPSEY WINS FROM THE POLE AT AUTOBAHN
"For me the race was always going to be tough because I knew Adam (Christodoulou) and Conor (Daly) were wanting to make a fight of it; they're both hot young drivers coming up the ladder and extremely talented," said Dempsey, who also won the Racing for Kids prize that includes a $500 donation to the Provena Children's Hospital in Joliet, Il. "For me, it was just about getting off the line and getting my head down and getting to the race pace I knew that we could run at. The car never missed a beat all week and when it came time to race, Juncos Racing gave me the car to do the job and I did it. Right there at the end of the race with about four laps to go the team was saying 'yellow, yellow, yellow' into my radio and that was the last thing I wanted to hear because I was so comfortable up front. I was a bit disappointed, but I knew once I got a good re-start that I had the pace to pull away. A lot of credit goes to the Goodyear tires which got back up to temperature straight away and I was able to run my fastest lap of the race on my last lap." As for the rest of the top-3 podium, one need only look at the qualifying sheet; Adam Christodoulou qualified and finished second in the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda; Conor Daly, the 2008 Skip Barber Champion and winner of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Drive Development scholarship, qualified and finished third in the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda. Save for a 'moment' between the two as Daly got a run on Christodoulou and attempted an ultimately unsuccessful pass during the green/white/checkered finish that resulted from a late-race full-course yellow, the principal drama was seeing how big a lead Dempsey could build over his closest challenger – the answer being 4.9-seconds.
Also making the podium were Expert Series (drivers 30 – 44) winner Chris Cumming and Master Series (drivers 45 and older) winner Mike Guasch. Cumming, the 2008 Expert Series Champion, finished 14th overall driving the #16 Worldspeed Motorsports Mazda. He has scored five class wins so far this season and is currently second in the Expert Series Championship battle. Guasch, in his first full year of Star Mazda Championship competition, leads the Master Series battle with three wins at the wheel of the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda. "I had a really bad qualifying, only got one lap because of all the red flags, so I ended up way in the back," said Guasch, owner and founder of Molecule Labs, a company that produces a line of protective chemicals that is changing the way racing professionals care for racing suits and protective gear. "But I got a really great start, came up on a couple of guys on the inside, then a few guys hit each other and went out so I was able to gain four or five places at the start. I settled into my pace and rhythm and wound up finishing 13th overall and beating not only all the Masters but all the Experts as well. The JDC team gave me a great car and it was one of my better races, so I'm looking forward to qualifying again later this evening and racing again tomorrow."
IRISH RACER PETER DEMPSEY WINS FROM THE POLE AT IOWA SPEEDWAY IN THE PIZZA RANCH 100 – HIS SECOND WIN OF THE 2009 SEASON IS A FIRST FOR HIS NEW TEAM, JUNCOS RACING
Surviving a crash-filled race and multiple, hair-raising re-starts, Dempsey pulled away from the field again and again in his #3 Juncos Racing / HOOTERS / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda, building a 7-second lead heading into the home stretch. This is Dempsey's second win of the season, achieved with two different teams; he took the top step of the podium in Round 2 at Virginia International Raceway with AIM Autosport early in the season, but switched to Juncos Racing just before the Milwaukee Mile two weeks ago. After running second for most of the race and finally finishing fourth there, he came to Iowa in second place in the championship… and leaves with a 9-point lead. "I just can't thank the Juncos team enough for giving me such a great car all weekend," says Dempsey, who earned the nickname 'The Irish Steamroller' with four Star Mazda wins in the 2008 season – including three of them in a row. "I've been going along race-to-race trying to find the money to continue, never with enough to go testing before a race, and now I got to test at this track before I came here to race, and next week we're going to do a test at Autobahn, the next track where we race. This is the way racing should be and I'm lucky to have this opportunity and happy to score a win here for the Juncos Racing team." Finishing a hard-fought second after qualifying 8th was Conor Daly, who races the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda with sponsorship from the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder. Starting fifth and placing third, in his best finish so far this season, was Canadian David Ostella in the #71 AIM Autosport/Global Precast Mazda. The winner of the Expert Series for drivers 30 – 44 years old was Japanese Racer Toshihiro Deki in the #80 Goshen Motorsports Mazda; he won his class and finished 12th overall, moving him into the lead in of the Expert Series championship battle. Also having an excellent race was American Rusty Mitchell, who qualified 6th in his #66 Mitchell Motorsports / Motorola Mazda and finished 4th; this on the heels of a well-deserved 6th-place finish two weeks ago at the Milwaukee Mile, the first of two oval races in a row for the Star Mazda Championship. Rounding out the top-5 was Englishman Adam Christodoulou who scored two quick wins early in the season; he came to Iowa leading the championship and started from third on the grid. In the Star Mazda Championship points battle, Dempsey leads with 252 points, followed by Adam Christodoulou driver of the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda; he is the only other driver so far this season with two race wins and came to Iowa leading the championship but after qualifying third and finishing fifth, he leaves nine points behind at 243. Brazilian racer Caio Lara, who qualified 17th and finished ninth in the #19 JDC Motorsports / MLD / ATW/ Molecule Mazda, moves from 5th to 3rd in the championship with 213 points. Conor Daly, one of the five race winners so far this season with his victory at New Jersey Motorsports Park climbs from 7th to 4th in the championship with 211 points. Rounding out the top-5, despite the worst luck a driver can have at a race – tangling with a teammate –is Joel Miller, driving the #2 JDC Motorsports / Fader Higher Productions / eSoles / Doug Mockett & Co. Mazda. Nor was his luck in qualifying any better; a loose spark plug wire and subsequent misfire consigned him to the back of the grid in the 20th starting spot; in the race he only finished two laps before a collision with another car took of his rear wing.
VIKING VICTORIOUS – SCANDANAVIAN SPEEDSTER ANDERS KROHN SCORES HIS FIRST STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP WIN AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE
Ultimately, after 100 laps of flat-out racing under a hot and cloudless Wisconsin sky, it was Anders 'The Viking' Krohn scoring his first-ever Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear victory in the #27 Mundill / Trallfa / Colosseum Mazda. Finishing second was Englishman Adam Christodoulou, who has scored two victories so far this season in the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule / Alpine Stars Mazda. Third place went to Alex Ardoin in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer Mazda. Chris Cumming, the Vancouver B.C. driver who won the 2008 Expert Series championship, took the Expert Series (drivers 30 – 44) win in his #16 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil Mazda. "It was an unexpected win because we started in 7th and we weren't quite sure how it would be passing the cars, but our car was hooked up early on and I could stay down low and just drive past people wherever I needed to," says Krohn, the 2008 FF2000 series champion. "From there it was fairly easy pulling out a gap, but then by mid-race when I started passing back markers it was so difficult to stay in their draft and get around them that the fast cars behind me caught up a little bit. I got a really clean re-start from that last caution and managed to pull out a gap that I was able to maintain to the end of the race. I just kept my head down, key was to do consistent laps and not take too many risks when passing the back markers. I wanted to run a clean race and that's what I managed to do. I had Larry Nash on the radio, a very experienced guy and he just kept me cool and calm and we brought it home. It's a great feeling." The first-turn drama came at the expense of pole sitter Richard Kent ((#33 Andersen Racing / Traka / Lafarge / Allied Interior Products Mazda) and 3rd-place starter Conor Daly (#22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda) who tangled wheels during a passing attempt and wound up in the Turn One wall. Picking up the lead of the race and holding it for the first 27 laps, was ex-Formula BMW racer Jorge Goncalvez, who started third on the grid in the #72 AIM Autosport / Mazda. (Qualifying was cancelled due to a Friday rain delay of the NASCAR series, so the Star Mazda gridded on the basis of their practice times.) Krohn took the lead on Lap 27 and it was Peter 'The Irish Steamroller' Dempsey in his first drive for his new team, Juncos Racing, who sliced his way up through the field from 9th on the grid to hound Krohn from second place in the #3 Juncos Racing / HOOTERS / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda. While Dempsey got shuffled back to 4th in the closing laps, he did set the fastest lap of the race, a 28.652 sec. – all the more remarkable considering the sum total of his oval-track experience was the two Friday practice sessions The final incident that set the stage for a late-race shootout came with an incident on lap 86 that caused a full-course yellow. On the re-start, a hair-raising, multi-car dive-bombing session into Turn One took place -- without further contact -- and shuffled the order as JDC Motorsports teammates Christodoulou (the only driver to win two races so far this season) and Ardoin (winner of the 2007 Star Mazda season-ender at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) took advantage of the opportunity. Jorge Goncalvez the early leader, ultimately finished 5th, with Rusty Mitchell, the young American who was fastest in the first session on Friday bringing his #66 Mitchell Motorsports / Motorola Mazda home in 6th. Rounding out the top-10 were Billy Goshen (7th/#82 Goshen Motorsports / Baker Commodities / GPSTrackit / OTTO / First Quality Concrete Mazda), Caio Lara (8th/#19 JDC Motorsports / MLD / ATW/ Molecule Mazda), Taylor Hacquard (9th/#15 Kester Racing Team 3G / Wolfe Auto Group / Texas World Speedway Mazda) and in 10th was Dempsey's Juncos Racing teammate, Michael Furfari – the youngest driver in the series -- who set the fastest time at this track during two days of Star Mazda series testing last month in his #13 Juncos Racing / Furfari Paving Mazda. Taking into account the results of today's race, Adam Christodoulou regains his lead in the Star Mazda point's championship with 211. Peter Dempsey, who came to Milwaukee leading the points, is now second with 207. American Joel Miller, who battled through a tough weekend to finish 14th in the #2 JDC Motorsports / Fader Higher Productions / eSoles / Doug Mockett & Co. Mazda, is third with 194. Third-place finisher Alex Ardoin is fourth in the points with 187, Caio Lara is fifth with 186 and race winner Anders Krohn jumps up the chart from 10th to seventh with 172 points. Star Mazda Championship Round 6 - Milwaukee Mile Results
FASTEST FOOT FORWARD -- RICHARD KENT WINS FROM THE POLE IN STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP RACE 2 AT NEW JERSEY MOTORSPORTS PARK
"I won the last race of last year at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and then sat on the pole at this year's season-opener at Sebring but missed the second race due to an injury and this race really marks the start of my 2009 season," says the driver from Milton Keynes, England. "We just have to keep up on these podiums and winning these races and hopefully misfortune will come a few other people's way as well, as it has for me. My leg still hurts a bit, but not in the car and it isn't affecting my on-track performance; I just have to be sensible with it when I'm away from the track. But right now nothing hurts at all… Remy my engineer and Alan my mechanic have done a fantastic job putting together the car. And the heat out there wasn't as hot as yesterday, but when you're running out front on your own trying to maintain concentration is always a struggle, so I just kept my head down and kept focused and it all worked out." Finishing second, after starting on the outside of the front row, was Louisiana racer Alex Ardoin, driving the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer Mazda. It was a great comeback after a difficult day yesterday in which an off-course excursion jarred an ignition wire loose and left him stranded on course with no power. Rounding out the top-3 was a familiar face in a familiar place from yesterday's race – Canadian racer Mikael Grenier, driving the #17 Andersen Racing / NAPA Auto Parts / CAA-Quebec / HS Telecom Mazda – who also finished third yesterday. The top-finishing Master Series (aged 45 and over) driver was Californian Mike Guasch who co-starred in the biggest accident of Saturday's race when he spun his #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda and was hit, hard, from behind while trying to re-enter the track. His victory today brings him back to the form that has him leading the Master Series championship with three in-class wins. He finished 18th overall in the 26-car field. Bringing his #16 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil Mazda home 15th overall and first in the Expert Series was Chris Cumming of Vancouver B.C. He is the reigning 2008 Expert Series champion and is currently leading the 2009 Expert battle with three in-class wins. Rounding out the top-5 overall were 2008 MAZDASPEED ladder driver Joel Miller who finished 4th in the #2 JDC Motorsports / Fader Higher Productions / eSoles / Doug Mockett & Co. Mazda, and Brazilian racer Caio Lara who moved up from 8th on the grid to finish 5th in his #19 JDC Motorsports / MLD / ATW/ Molecule Mazda. And Peter 'The Irish Steamroller' Dempsey, who finished 6th on Saturday and 7th today in an altogether tough weekend in his #3 AIM Autosport / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda, still managed to emerge as the points leader when former leader and 2-race winner Adam Christodoulou spent three laps in the pits to repair a suspension failure and finished 25th out of 26 cars. Dempsey, in his second season of Star Mazda Championship racing, won four races last year, and also won Round 2 at Virginia International Raceway earlier this season. Saturday's pole-sitter and race winner, Conor Daly, the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder winner, had a loose (oversteering) car in qualifying and started from 9th on the grid. With only a single full-course yellow to bunch up the field during the entire 40-minute event, he drove every lap at 10/10ths and could do no better than 8th at the finish. Daly, the son of racing legend and noted motorsports broadcaster Derek Daly, is the 2008 Skip Barber Pro Series champion and won his ride in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear courtesy of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder. This unique program, the only one supported by a major automaker, provides champions from karting through the top levels of the sport with sponsorship to move up to the next level. In the 2009 Star Mazda Championship battle, Peter Dempsey leads with 173, followed by American Joel Miller with 172. Former leader Englishman Adam Christodoulou drops to third with 171. Brazilian Caio Lara is in fourth with 158 points and Saturday's winner Conor Daly has moved up to fifth with 156.
GREEN LEGEND GROWING -- CONOR DALY WINS FROM THE POLE IN STAR MAZDA RACE 1 AT NEW JERSEY MOTORSPORTS PARK MAZDA FORMULA X DOUBLE-HEADER
Leading Daly into Turn 1, but giving up the lead in Turn 3 and ultimately following Daly across the finish line was Englishman Adam Christodoulou, the current championship leader and winner of two races so far this season. He started his #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda on the outside of the front row. The final podium finisher, scoring his first top-3 finish of the season, was Canadian racer Mikael Grenier, who was fast in practice but qualified 8th after a late-night setup adjustment to his #17 Andersen Racing / NAPA Auto Parts / CAA-Quebec / HS Telecom Mazda went awry.
The top-finishing Master Series (aged 45 and over) driver was Gerry Kraut, co-owner of JDC Motorsports who brought his #55 JDC Motorsports / Dougherty & Co. / Dougherty Funding LLC Mazda home in 20th overall. In addition to his victory here, he has scored three in-class top-3 finishes so far this season and is second in the points battle for the Master Series Championship. Bringing his #16 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil Mazda home 17th overall and first in the Expert Series was Chris Cumming of Vancouver B.C. He is the reigning 2008 Expert Series champion and is currently leading the 2009 Expert battle with two class wins and two in-class podium finishes. In the 2009 Star Mazda Championship points battle, Adam Christodoulou leads with two wins, two poles a podium and one 7th-place finish totaling 159 points. Peter "The Irish Steamroller" Dempsey, who won four Star Mazda Championship races during the 2008 season and finished third in the championship, sits second in the championship battle with 144 points. He won Round Two at Virginia International Raceway, finished on the podium at Miller Motorsports Park and came through the New Jersey field from 15th on the starting grid to finish 6th. American Joel Miller, the 2008 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder driver, is third with 138 points, two podiums and two top-5 finishes. Race winner Conor Daly, the 2008 Skip Barber champion and this year's MAZDASPEED ladder driver, sits in fourth with one pole, one win, one podium, one top-5 and 128 points.
PREDICTABLE RESULT, UNEXPECTED DETAILS -- ADAM CHRISTODOULOU WINS OVER 33 CAR FIELD IN STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 AT MILLER MOTORSPORTS PARK
Christodoulou, starting from the inside of the front row, got an excellent start and pulled into the lead; his intent to drive a clean race from the front and leading every lap seemed to be going according to plan. Then a full-course yellow resulting from contact between two mid-pack cars – as it so often does – nearly changed everything. After two laps of full-course yellow, on the re-start, it was Louisiana racer Alex Ardoin who emerged from the four-abreast charge into Turn One leading the pack. And this he continued to do for the largest part of the race until, in one of those inexplicable things that happen in racing, while changing the settings on his cockpit-adjustable sway bars, Ardoin's finger just ticked the engine shutoff switch… with predictable results; off into the gravel, madly scrambling to get the engine re-started and the car back on track. Which he did. In sixth. And there he stayed until the checkered flag fell. Needless to say he was too devastated to speak about it afterward. Christodoulou, on the other hand, was quite content, having driven a flawless – if not quite according to plan – race, to score his second victory of the season (he won from the front row at Sebring) and consolidate his lead in the points championship that he had shared entering the Miller weekend with Peter Dempsey, winner of Round Two at Virginia International Raceway. Christodoulou was also the top-finishing driver among those signed up for the Racing For Kids program and will have $500 donated in his name to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City and a matching amount to a children's hospital in the U.K. "It definitely wasn't an easy race," said Christodoulou, the 2008 U.K. Formula Renault Champion. "Alex was pretty quick, got a decent re-start and he actually pulled away at the start while I was battling it out with the guys behind me. I caught back up with him and pushed him as hard as I could into the first corner and I think he hit the kill switch, and that was it for him. Obviously I passed him, took the lead and just kept my head down and took it to the end." Finishing second after qualifying 5th was Irishman Peter Dempsey, driving the #3 AIM Autosport / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda. Dempsey won the previous Star Mazda race, Round Three at VIR, and won four races in 2008, placing third in the championship. His race was slightly compromised by a broken 'splitter,' an aerodynamic device that helps direct airflow and produce downforce to increase cornering. Likewise, 3rd-place finisher Joel Miller, who started from the outside of the front row in the #2 JDC Motorsports / Fader Higher Productions / Mockett / Burns Truck & Trailer Mazda, had mechanical problems that appeared early in the race; they did not compromise his ability to finish, but he was in 'conservation mode' throughout. Miller, the 2008 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Scholarship winner, won the first race of last year at Sebring and finished second in the championship. It is of note that all of the top-3 finishers are previous race winners -- and the 4th-place finisher as well, Englishman Richard Kent. He was the 'man from nowhere' who showed up at the final race of last season, broke the lap record at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on his way to winning first the pole and then the race. Kent drives the #33 Andersen Racing / Traka / Allied Interior Products Mazda. Rounding out the top-5 was rising Brazilian open-wheel star Caio Lara, now in his second season of Star Mazda competition and driving the #19 JDC Motorsports / MLD / ATW/ Molecule Mazda for the championship-winning JDC Motorsports team. Finishing first in the Expert Series for drivers 30 to 44 years old was Japanese rookie Toshihiro Deki, driving the #80 Goshen Motorsports Mazda. It was the first podium appearance in the Star Mazda series for this driver who is a high-profile motorsports star in his homeland. Winning the Master series for drivers over 45 is 2008 Master Series champion Chuck Hulse. Making his first appearance in the series in 2009, Californian Hulse brought his #12 Dave Frietas Racing / Silicon Salvage Mazda home in 19th overall. Result After 22 Laps
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH – PETER DEMPSEY'S 'HAIL MARY' PASS IN THE CLOSING LAPS PRODUCES A SURPRISE WIN IN STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 2 AT VIR Surviving a race liberally sprinkled with punts, shunts, debris and yellow flags, Irish racer Peter Dempsey pulled off the 'hail Mary' pass of the weekend the weekend to win Round 2 of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at VIR. Nicknamed 'the Irish Steamroller' for his four wins, including three in a row, during the 2008 Star Mazda season, Dempsey, who started on the outside of the front row, drove his #3 AIM Autosport / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda to a 0.038-sec. margin of victory over Louisiana native Alex Ardoin who started from 5th on the grid in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center Mazda. Rounding out the top-3 was Joel Miller who qualified 7th in the #2 JDC Motorsports Mazda and led the largest number of laps during the race, most of them under the yellow flag. It was the battle between Miller, Ardoin and pole-sitter Adam Christodoulou -- all teammates on the JDC Motorsports team -- that allowed Dempsey to slip through with two laps to go into first on the re-start after the final full-course yellow. "I was swallowed by JDC cars, but I knew they weren't going to take each other out, so I was able to use that and squeeze my way through right at the end," said Dempsey. "I drafted Alex and Joel stayed tight, but I knew the pit lane exit was right there and I figured if I ended up in the grass then so be it. I more or less had to make the pass because I barely made it to this race and wouldn't be at the next one if I didn't win, so I'm really happy to have crossed the finish line first. I really need to thank Motorsports Ireland and the Irish Sport Council, as well as a bunch of other friends and supporters, for helping me get here. This one is for them." Finishing first (and 15th overall) in the Expert Series for drivers 30-44 years old was another Irishman, Patrick O'Neill, driving the #64 Mundill / O'Neill Construction Mazda. This was O'Neill's first start of the 2009 season and provided an interesting lesson in the fruits of generosity; Dane Cameron, the 2007 Star Mazda champion, won his title driving a car borrowed from O'Neill. Finishing first (14th overall) in the Master Series for drivers 45 and older was Californian Michael Guasch, driving the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Mazda. He also won the Master Series class at the Sebring season-opener. "The race was pretty chaotic on the re-starts, so it was important to get a good draft on the inside, minimize the risks and get the car home," said O'Neill. "I'm really proud of Peter today and really happy to be one of two Irish winners on the same podium." The 'heartbreak award' of the race goes to Englishman Adam Christodoulou, the Sebring winner and pole-sitter at VIR. After topping the time sheets in every practice session -- and winning the pole -- he was hot on Dempsey's tail going into the final lap but went off-course in a daring pass attempt and was lucky to keep his #11 JDC Motorsports Mazda off the guardrail and salvage a 7th-place finish. "It was definitely a very entertaining race, if not quite the result I hoped for," said Christodoulou. "I lead the race at the start but got my rules mixed up and slowed down to not pass the pace car as it went into the pits and everyone went around me. I was able to work my way back up and went to make a move on Peter going into turn 14 on the last lap. We got within inches of each other and I ran out of road into the grass, then there was a turn worker post right in front of me that I had to avoid, so all things considered, I feel fortunate to finish where I did after taking the scenic route." Other drives of note include rookie Jorge Goncalvez, who qualified his #72 AIM Autosport / Mazda 12th on the grid and moved up to finish 4th. Conor Daly, son of racing legend Derek Daly and the 2009 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder driver, started 6th on the grid and finished 5th in his #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda. Scandinavian racer Anders Krohn, who started 15th in the #27 Mundill / Trallfa / Colosseum Mazda, put in a fine drive to finish 6th. Race Results - Sunday, April 26, 2009
THE CONSISTENT ENGLISHMAN ADAM CHRISTODOULOU WINS ROUND ONE OF THE 2009 STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP AT SEBRING
"We struggled through some mechanical problems during the week and even missed a session on Wednesday, which was tough with qualifying on Thursday, but the team did an awesome job and it all came right in the end," said Christodoulou. "Even though Richard was on the pole, I seemed to get an extremely good start and passed him going into the first corner, but then I looked over and saw Alex Ardoin next to me and he led the first couple of laps until he had a drive through penalty and I got the lead of the race. I'm used to twenty-five minute races in much colder climates, so it felt like a really long event, and Richard actually passed me on one of the final re-starts but went a bit deep into corner ten and I was able to get by and hold the lead for the rest of the race." Rounding out the top-5 were Brazilian Caio Lara in the #19 JDC Motorsports Mazda and American Joel Miller, who won this event from the pole in 2008. Lara finished third on track, but was penalized a position for a driving infraction, moving him back to fourth and elevating Conor Daly to the top-3. The top-finishing Expert Series (ages 30 – 44) driver was 2008 Expert Series champion Chris Cumming of Vancouver, B.C. He drove the #16 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil Mazda to a 14th-place finish overall. Californian Mike Guasch won the Master Series (45 and older) driving the #91 JDC Motorsports / Molecule Labs Mazda. Other notable drives during the event include Alex Ardoin, who qualified 4th in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center Mazda, but with an aggressive start found himself leading the first three laps. Officials determined the start was perhaps a bit too aggressive and awarded him a 'drive-through' penalty that dropped him to the very back of the 28-car pack. By lap 20, however, the third-year racer from Lafayette, Louisiana worked his way back up to 8th. And Chilean rookie Kevin Toledo, driving for the newly-announced Eliseo THL Motorsports team headed by racing legend Eliseo Salazar, scored a top-10 finish driving the #77 Eliseo THL Mazda. Peter Dempsey, who won four races during the 2008 Star Mazda Championship, three of them in a row, and finished third in the championship, weathered a difficult weekend with his new team to qualify 5th and finish 6th in the #3 AIM Autosport / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda. Joe D'Agostino, a last-moment entry driving with sponsorship from Classic Mazda in Orlando, Florida, qualified 11th on the starting grid in his #5 Andersen Racing / Classic Mazda machine and finished 7th. 17 year-old Venezuelan Jorge Goncalvez, moving up from from Formula BMW made a good showing, finishing 9th in the #72 AIM Autosport / Mazda. In the championship points battle with one race run, Adam Christodoulou leads with 44, followed by Richard Kent with 41 (including a point for winning the pole), Conor Daly with 37, Caio Lara with 34 and Joel Miller with 32. Chris Cumming leads the Expert Series with 20 points, followed by Phil Fogg, Jr. who finished 19th overall in the #29 Northwest Autosport / Consonus Health Services Mazda to score 16 points. Noted Japanese racer and Star Mazda rookie Toshihiro Deki finished third in the class, scoring 12 points in the #80 Goshen Motorsports Mazda. Master Series winner Mike Guasch leads the category with 20 points, while Gerry Kraut, co-owner of JDC Motorsports, finished 2nd in the #55 JDC Motorsports / Dougherty & Co. / Dougherty Funding LLC Mazda to score 16 points. Rookie Walt Bowlin, driving the #23 Juncos Racing / Hooters Mazda finished third in the class and has 14 points. In the team championship, JDC Motorsports leads with 32 points, followed by 2008 team champions Andersen Racing with 30 and AIM Autosport, who fielded the championship-winning effort of American John Edwards, in third with 22 points Race One Results - 20 Laps Pos Name Diff
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English
racer Adam Christodoulou, starting from the outside of the front row in
the #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule / Miller Milling Company /
Alpinestars Mazda, won the season finale, the Rookie of the Year award
-- and the overall 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear
–at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. It was Christodoulou's third victory of
the season and earned him a fully-sponsored ride in the 2010 Atlantic
Championship Powered by Mazda courtesy of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports
Driver Development Ladder. He will also collect a check for $100,000 at
tonight's Series award ceremonies. 
Dempsey
managed to get back on track and return to the battle, moving quickly up
through the field despite aerodynamic and mechanical damage to the front
of his #3 Juncos Racing / The Collection / Motorsport Ireland /
Queyside.ie Mazda. He was back up to 11th by the mid-point of the race,
setting the fastest race lap in the process. He then had multiple
contacts with the #66 Mitchell Motorsports / Motorola Mazda of Rusty
Mitchell; the resulting damage to his car put him out of the race and he
was credited with a 23rd-place finish. Miller and Mitchell finished
17th and 18th, respectively.
On
a day turned from gloom to glory, Englishman Richard Kent, who won the
pole in morning fog and rain, converted his advantage to a dominating
race win in Round 11 of the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by
Goodyear at Mosport. In doing so, he became – along with Peter Dempsey
and Adam Christodoulou – one of only three multi-race winners so far
this season driving the #33 Andersen Racing / Traka Allied Interior
Products Mazda. Kent, who has started from the pole four times this so
far this season – the most of any driver – also won from the pole in
Round 5 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
With a perfectly-judged, last-lap, first turn pass during the
green/white/checkered re-start of a hard-fought race, Louisiana driver
Alex Ardoin took the lead from pole-sitter Rusty Mitchell to win Round
10 of the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at the 40th
running of the GP3R at Trois Rivieres. After qualifying third on the
grid in the #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center /
Twister Trailer Mazda, Ardoin hounded pole-sitter Rusty Mitchell in the
#66 Mitchell Motorsports / Motorola Mazda in the closing laps of the
race and, calling on three seasons of experience in Star Mazda
Championship competition, scored the second win of his career; his first
victory came in the 2007 season-closer at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca,
finished 4th in the 2008 championship and in 2009 has endured a string
of bad luck that would have defeated a weaker personality.
Carrying the flag for the Quebec racing fans and turning in one of the
best drives of the race was Mikael Grenier, a 16-year old 'phenom' from
Quebec City who is now a student living in Stoneham and attending
Georges-Vanier High School in Montreal. He battled mechanical
difficulties in practice and qualifying, starting the race from the last
row in 19th. He drove #17 Andersen Racing / NAPA Auto Parts / CAA-Quebec
/ HS Telecom Mazda to a 4th-place finish. He scored a pair of 3rd-place
podium finishes earlier in the season.
In
a remarkable display of driving consistency, amid a remarkably
consistent weekend of racing, Irish racing driver Peter Dempsey
accomplished the motorsports equivalent of pitching a 'perfect game' in
baseball; fastest in every practice session, on the pole for both races,
on the top step of the podium both Saturday and Sunday – a total sweep
of Rounds 8 and 9 of the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by
Goodyear at the Harrah's Autobahn Grand Prix Presented by Mazda.
Driving the #3 Juncos Racing / HOOTERS / Motorsport Ireland /
Queyside.ie Mazda, Dempsey has now won four races so far this season –
equal to his 2008 season total, but with four races still remaining on
the 2009 Star Mazda schedule. He has accomplished this driving for two
different teams, winning on both road courses and ovals; he leads the
championship with 342 points.
Peter
'The Irish Steamroller' Dempsey has re-confirmed his nickname with a
dominant win from the pole in the Harrah's Autobahn Grand Prix of
Mazda. This achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider
the path he has taken; after winning four races in 2008, including three
in a row, only to finish third in the championship, he returned in 2009
and scored his first win of the new season at Virginia International
Raceway with AIM Autosport. Forced by economic circumstance to change
teams just before the first of two oval track races on the 2009
schedule, he finished 4th at the Milwaukee Mile and won from the pole at
the Iowa Speedway, not only his first oval track win but also an
emotional first victory for the fledgling Juncos Racing team. To that
already impressive total, he adds being quickest in every practice
session at Autobahn, winning the pole and leading every lap of the
race. He is currently the only driver in the series with three race
wins so far this season. 
With
the results of today's Race 1, Peter Dempsey, who came to Autobahn
leading the championship by nine points, extends his lead to 14 points
over Adam Christodoulou (297 vs 283). Conor Daly moves into third place
with 248 points.
Peter
Dempsey, sporting bright green hair in celebration of both his Irish
heritage and his pole-winning performance in qualifying earlier in the
afternoon, put all joking aside to dominate a 21-car field on the
7/8ths-mile Iowa Speedway oval in the inaugural Star Mazda Championship
presented by Goodyear Pizza Ranch 100. 
In
a race opening with a first-lap, first turn drama that took out two of
the top qualifiers, it fell to a Scandinavian and an Irishman to provide
the mid-race battle… and to an Englishman and a third-season driver from
Louisiana to seize the late-race opportunity and fill out the podium.
Completing
a return to form that has seen stops and starts to his Star Mazda
Championship season, Englishman Richard Kent won Race 2 of the
double-header Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear Mazda
Formula X weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Kent led every lap
from the pole after smashing the existing Star Mazda Championship lap
record at New Jersey Motorsports Park by more than 4/10ths of a second
in the #33 Andersen Racing / Traka / Lafarge N.A. / Allied Interior
Products Mazda .
His
bright green #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax
Mazda leading the way from start (more or less) to finish, Conor Daly,
son of ex-Williams F1 driver Derek Daly, began growing his own legend
with a win from the pole in Race 1 of a Star Mazda Championship
presented by Goodyear double-header weekend at the Mazda Formula X Event
at New Jersey Motorsports Park. It was his first victory of the season
and vaulted him to 4th from 7th in the championship points. 
"I
didn't get a great start because my car was creeping even with the
clutch in, so I had to work the clutch, gas and brake all at the same
time; that's why Adam was ahead of me going into the first turn," said
Daly. "But I got past him again in three and from there on had a really
good race. It probably wasn't as exciting as the TV people would like,
but I enjoyed it and the car was perfect. I was able to drive really
consistent laps and was fortunate to be open up a gap at the beginning
of the race, and after the re-start as well. I knew Adam was back there
behind me and if there was an opportunity for him to pass he'd take it,
so I had to focus on opening up a gap and once I was able to do that I
just concentrated on managing my tires and conserving my car to go the
full distance. Everyone will be working on their cars overnight, but my
car is so good right now that I feel pretty good about being able to do
this again tomorrow."
Given
that he dominated all but one of the four practices session over the two
days leading up to the race, and put his #11 JDC Motorsports / Molecule
Mazda on the pole by a margin of more than 3/10ths, it came as no
surprise to anyone that he eventually crossed the finish line ahead of
32 other cars to win Round Three of the 2009 Star Mazda Championship at
Miller Motorsports Park. The manner of it, however, was a bit more
interesting.
A
trio of European rookies took the top three spots in this afternoon's
Round One of the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at
the 57th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring. Adam Christodoulou, the rising
open-wheel racer from Milton Keynes, started from the outside of the
front row and drove twenty flawless laps to victory at the wheel of the
#11 JDC Motorsports Mazda. Finishing second by a margin of 0.504 sec.
was fellow Englishman and long-time rival, pole-sitter Richard Kent of
Birmingham, driving the #33 Andersen Racing / Traka / Allied Interior
Products Mazda. Rounding out the top-3 was Conor Daly, son of racing
legend Derek Daly, a former F1 and Indy car racer as well as two-time
winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Daly, the 2008 Skip Barber Pro
Series champion, is racing the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network /
Indeck / Cytomax Mazda with sponsorship from the MAZDASPEED Motorsports
Driver Development Ladder.