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Star Mazda Championship

Justice wins race, Carrio takes championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Ryan Justice (no38) and Adrian Carrio (no 14) lead the field in the final round of the Star Mazda Championship at Laguna Seca. Justice takes the win while Carrio the championship in Pic: Eric McCombs

Jumping into the lead on the opening lap, Ryan Justice survived a caution filled race to take the victory in the season finale of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Joining Justice on the podium were Michael Potekhen, in second place, and Adrian Carrio, who captured the championship, in third place.

Justice, driving the #38 Northwest Autosport World Food Program Mazda, lined up second on the grid even though he damaged his left front suspension after making contact with the tire wall in turn six during the qualifying session and quickly climbed into the lead on the opening lap. "The Northwest Autosport crew did a great job getting the car back together in the short time between qualifying and the race and I was able to take the lead right away. It was disappointing that we only got five green flag laps as I think we could've put on a good show for the fans," a student at Loyola explained. "That said it still feels good to leave here with a victory as I'm in my final semester at school and when I'm in the library until four in the morning on a Saturday night as I try to catch up for the time I've been away at the racetrack it's always nice to look back at a victory."

Jumping from seventh to second on the opening lap, Potekhen, in the #53 Apex Racing Avenue Communities Mazda was happy to be back on the podium but disappointed that the cautions eliminated any fight for the victory. "Qualifying didn't go quite as I had hoped but I had an excellent start," the Tempe, Arizona resident said. "It was like the seas parted on the opening lap and I was able to drive around three cars ont he outside in turn two and got a run on Adrian heading into turn five and that was the race right there. It was a shame having to spend so much time following the pace car and I hope that the series can figure out how to return to the green flag racing in the future."

Newly crowned champion Adrian Carrio echoed their thoughts as he brought the #14 World Speed Motorsports Rockford Fosgate Mazda home in the final podium position after locking up the championship with his pole position effort in qualifying. "I was really hoping that we were able to stay green this weekend in what will be my last Star Mazda race as I look to move up to the Champ Car Atlantic Series next season," the seventeen-year old said. "Ryan was able to get the jump on me at the start as I was looking to protect my car and Michael got a run on in me in turn five but we never got a chance to really race each other. It feels good to take the championship and I have to thank my crew at World Speed Motorsports as they work as hard, if not harder, than we do as drivers. I also have to thank Rockford Fosgate and Barry Shames for sponsoring me this season as without their assistance I couldn't go racing."

Originally scheduled for twenty-eight laps the race would wind up being a timed event as the newly configured gravel traps around the 2.238-mile circuit and several racing incidents combined to make the race a forty-five minute timed event.

As the hard fought championship comes to a close, Carrio finishes his championship season with 433 points, while Kevin Lacroix in the #74 John Walko Racing Uni-Select Auto Parts Mazda goes into the books in second place with 394 points. In a wild chase between four drivers for third place in the championship, Justice, came up big in the race to lock down the spot with 366 points. Potekhen would claim fourth with 333 points and Ron White in the #69 Ross Smith Racing Mazda would complete the top five in the championship with 326 points.

In the Expert Championship, for drivers aged 30-44, Gerardo Bonilla, who would take a wild ride though the gravel in turn five this afternoon, locked up the championship in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta in the #9 Andersen Racing Team Skip Barber Mazda. Phil Fogg Jr. in the #29 Northwest Autosport Consonsus Health Services Mazda captured the class victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and finished fourth in the championship. The battle for second place came down to the wire with Brian Thienes, of Huntington Beach, California, taking the second spot in the class in #77 JDC Motorsports Thienes Engineering Mazda with 166 points while Dan Tomlin III, of Dallas, Texas, had to settle for third place with 153 points in the #56 Team Tomlin Mazda.

In the Masters Championship, for drivers aged 45 and older, the championship race was a two way battle between former class champions Doug Peterson in the #87 American Speed Factory 3-Dimensional Services Mazda with 160 points entering the event, and John Faulkner in the #93 Phenom Racing Group Molecule Mazda with 153 points. Peterson, from Bonita Springs, Florida, would put in a solid drive to take the class victory with a twelfth place finish overall and the championship ahead of Faulkner, who finished fifteenth overall today. Ken Losch, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, took third place in the class behind the wheel of the #52 Apex Racing Centerpoint Communities Mazda.

In the Team Championship the championship went to John Walko Racing with 241 points overall. World Speed Motorsports finished in second place with 227 points and Northwest Autosport made a late season charge to take the third spot in the championship with 187 points.

Monterey Sports Car Championships
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca/Monterey California
Saturday, October 21, 2006

Star Mazda Championship Presented By Goodyear
Race Results

Pos	No.	Name	Laps	Total Tm	Diff	Gap	Best Tm
1	38	Ryan Justice	22	44:36.060	-	-	1:22.429
2	53	Mike Potekhen	22	44:36.315	+0.255	+0.255	1:22.946
3	14	Adrian Carrio	22	44:37.978	+1.918	+1.663	1:22.954
4	74	Kevin Lacroix	22	44:38.516	+2.456	+0.538	1:23.204
5	3	Mark Wilkins	22	44:39.173	+3.113	+0.657	1:23.195
6	33	Ryan Phinny	22	44:39.793	+3.733	+0.620	1:23.489
7	69	Ron White	22	44:40.832	+4.772	+1.039	1:22.855
8	18	Rob Bunker	22	44:41.483	+5.423	+0.651	1:23.464
9	23	Logan Gomez	22	44:42.173	+6.113	+0.690	1:23.206
10	92	Daniel Herrington	22	44:44.128	+8.068	+1.955	1:24.777
11	29	Phil Fogg Jr.	22	44:44.927	+8.867	+0.799	1:24.579
12	87	Doug Peterson	22	44:45.879	+9.819	+0.952	1:25.963
13	86	Charles Anti	22	44:47.196	+11.136	+1.317	1:26.271
14	8	Ross Smith	22	44:49.094	+13.034	+1.898	1:25.248
15	93	John Faulkner	22	44:49.756	+13.696	+0.662	1:27.736
16	52	Ken Losch	22	44:50.270	+14.210	+0.514	1:28.043
17	4	Micky Gilbert	22	44:51.317	+15.257	+1.047	1:27.748
18	85	Jay Poscente	22	44:52.273	+16.213	+0.956	1:27.679
19	64	Patrick O'Neil	22	44:52.528	+16.468	+0.255	1:28.812
20	26	Chris Cumming	22	44:53.016	+16.956	+0.488	1:29.606
21	46	John Mayes	22	44:54.510	+18.450	+1.494	1:28.202
22	47	Scott Jenkins	22	44:56.291	+20.231	+1.781	1:28.576
23	68	Dave House	22	44:56.741	+20.681	+0.450	1:29.772
24	36	Marc Arseneau	22	44:57.765	+21.705	+1.024	1:29.537
25	96	Browning Williams	22	44:58.648	+22.588	+0.883	1:30.455
26	58	Dan Tomlin Jr.	22	44:59.751	+23.691	+1.103	1:31.104
27	50	Brian Johnson	22	45:00.224	+24.164	+0.473	1:27.696
28	35	Tom Mabey	22	45:01.712	+25.652	+1.488	1:30.542
29	65	JW Roberts	22	45:02.243	+26.183	+0.531	1:29.385
30	88	Dan Weyland	22	45:03.368	+27.308	+1.125	1:30.834
31	91	Michael Guasch	22	45:05.863	+29.803	+2.495	1:29.652
32	77	Brian Thienes	21	44:53.784	1 Lap	1 Lap	1:26.917
33	25	Thomas Wieringa	20	40:22.988	2 Laps	1 Lap	1:28.702
34	28	Russell Walker	16	31:42.236	6 Laps	4 Laps	1:25.365
35	9	Gerardo Bonilla	16	31:42.618	+0.382	+0.382	1:25.356
36	2	Brad Jaeger	16	31:43.911	+1.675	+1.293	1:25.346
37	56	Dan Tomlin III	11	22:12.841	11 Laps	5 Laps	1:28.860
38	24	Jon Brownson	8	18:06.591	14 Laps	3 Laps	1:34.833
39	66	Emmett Murphy	6	11:42.807	16 Laps	2 Laps	1:29.224
40	12	Jules Duc	1	1:40.598	21 Laps	5 Laps	1:35.681

Ron White takes the victory at Road Atlanta

Ron White leads Mark Wilkins and Kevin Lacroix to the chequered flag . Photo - Eric McCombs

On a picture perfect day at Road Atlanta, Ron White, of Santa Clara, California, rolled to his third consecutive victory of the season in the #69 Ross Smith Racing Mazda in Round Eleven of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. Joining White on the podium were Mark Wilkins, in second place, and Kevin Lacroix in the third position.

Starting alongside Wilkins on the outside of the front row, White jumped into the lead on the opening lap and was engaged in a race-long duel for the top spot, losing the position for six laps before being able to jump back out front for good on lap seventeen. "I can't ask for a lot more than this today, Mark and I were both driving the wheels off our cars out there today and the yellows that came out went our direction today," White explained. "On the start and the first restart I was able to guess when Mark was going to get on the gas and was able to get a good run on him going into the first corner. The car has been working great and we're going to keep trying to chase down the drivers ahead of us with more points."

Making his fourth start of the season in the #3 AIM Autosport Bluetooth Mazda, Mark Wilkins has returned to the front-running for he displayed in 2005 before a boating accident cut short his season winning the pole position on Thursday and battling throughout the race for the victory. "It was a great race for myself and the AIM Autosport team today," the Toronto, Canada resident said, "Ron was able to get around me on the start, I was able to get back by for a while, and then he retook the lead and I kept the pressure on him hoping for a mistake. I was a little rusty when I first got back in the car at Trois-Rivieres but everything is working great now and I'm looking forward to going to Laguna Seca for the end of the season."

Keeping his championship hopes alive with a third place finish, Lacroix, from St Eustache, Canada, was pleased to return to the podium after a string of fourth place finishes in the #74 John Walko Racing Uni-Select Auto Parts Mazda. "I've had some bad luck the past few races so it feels good to be back on the podium," Lacroix commented. "I moved from fifth to third on the opening lap and was chasing Ron and Mark and hoping they would make a mistake. I tried to pass Ron at one point but had to back out and play it a little safe because if I had crashed it would've taken me out of the points race."

While the action at the front was tight the drive of the race belonged to fourth place finisher Logan Gomez, pilot of the #23 Velocity Motorsports INDYana Kid Mazda, who raced his way through the field from seventeenth place on the grid to finish just ahead of championship points leader Adrian Carrio. "We had a difficult time in qualifying as I couldn't get a clean lap when the track was drying so I had to start deep in the field," the Crown Point, Indiana native explained. "My car was really good on the opening laps when the tyres were cold and my engineer Rick Cameron and the Velocity team gave me a great car. The caution periods hurt today as it killed the time on the clock and if we had some green flag laps at the end I know I would've finished on the podium."

With one race remaining the championship battle as been narrowed down to a two driver competition with Carrio, in the #14 World Speed Motorsports Rockford Fosgate Mazda holding a 35 point advantage over Lacroix, who has clinched the Rookie-of-the-Year title with his finish today. Ryan Justice, from Portland, Oregon, sits in third place in the championship.

In the Expert Championship, for drivers aged 30-44, Gerardo Bonilla locked up the championship with his eighth class victory of the season in the #9 Andersen Racing Team Skip Barber Mazda. The battle for second becomes the focus as heading to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as Brian Thienes sits in second with 152 points while Dan Tomlin III holds third place with 142 points.

In the Masters Championship, for drivers aged 45 and older, John Faulkner in the #93 Phenom Racing Group Molecule Mazda turn captured the class victory with a thirteenth place finish overall and turns up the heat on points leader Doug Peterson, who had climbed into the top ten overall before getting caught up in an incident in turn seven. With one race to go Peterson holds first with 160 points while Faulkner sits in second place with 153 points.

In the Team Championship John Walko Racing stretches their lead with 223 points, while World Speed Motorsports has a tough climb to retake the lead with 208 points. Strong finishes by Justice and Phil Fogg Jr have propelled Northwest Autosport from fifth to third in the team championship with 159 points.

The series now heads to Monterey, California, for the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the spiritual home of the championship, alongside the American Le Mans Series at the Monterey Sportscar Championships on October 19-21.

Eric McCombs

Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear
Petit LeMans
Road Atlanta/Braselton, Georgia
Friday, September 29, 2006
Race Results

Pos	No.	Name	Laps	Total Tm	Diff	Gap	Best Tm
1	69	Ron White	27	47:42.747	-	-	1:21.405
2	3	Mark Wilkins	27	47:43.587	+0.840	+0.840	1:21.461
3	74	Kevin Lacroix	27	47:43.696	+0.949	+0.109	1:21.377
4	23	Logan Gomez	27	47:44.304	+1.557	+0.608	1:21.815
5	14	Adrian Carrio	27	47:45.101	+2.354	+0.797	1:21.276
6	8	Dan Dileo	27	47:45.817	+3.070	+0.716	1:21.804
7	9	Gerardo Bonilla	27	47:46.822	+4.075	+1.005	1:21.950
8	28	Russell Walker	27	47:47.780	+5.033	+0.958	1:21.942
9	38	Ryan Justice	27	47:48.918	+6.171	+1.138	1:22.138
10	29	Phil Fogg Jr.	27	47:49.638	+6.891	+0.720	1:22.487
11	18	Rob Bunker	27	47:50.189	+7.442	+0.551	1:21.920
12	17	Alex Ardoin	27	47:51.964	+9.217	+1.775	1:22.078
13	93	John Faulkner	27	47:52.727	+9.980	+0.763	1:22.860
14	85	Jay Poscente	27	47:53.084	+10.337	+0.357	1:23.046
15	47	Carlos Llano	27	47:53.960	+11.213	+0.876	1:23.893
16	24	Jon Brownson	27	47:54.797	+12.050	+0.837	1:23.271
17	61	Richard Zober	27	47:56.452	+13.705	+1.655	1:24.012
18	91	Michael Guasch	27	47:58.342	+15.595	+1.890	1:24.280
19	96	Browning Williams	27	47:59.143	+16.396	+0.801	1:24.963
20	58	Dan Tomlin Jr.	27	48:04.398	+21.651	+5.255	1:25.233
21	88	Dan Weyland	27	48:05.232	+22.485	+0.834	1:25.524
22	77	Brian Thienes	27	48:06.312	+23.565	+1.080	1:23.209
23	56	Dan Tomlin III	26	48:07.583	1 Lap	1 Lap	1:23.632
24	60	Mark Patterson	23	38:50.340	4 Laps	3 Laps	1:22.950
25	99	Phil Saville	23	38:55.444	+5.104	+5.104	1:22.959
26	15	Ricky Taylor	22	37:20.714	5 Laps	1 Lap	1:22.556
27	86	Charles Anti	21	35:02.532	6 Laps	1 Lap	1:22.265
28	87	Doug Peterson	21	48:03.740	+13:01.208	+13:01.208	1:22.571
29	71	Steven Hickham Jr.	19	38:50.933	8 Laps	2 Laps	1:23.761
30	52	Ken Losch	19	48:02.912	+9:11.979	+9:11.979	1:24.647
31	55	Gerry Kraut	18	29:44.285	9 Laps	1 Lap	1:25.034
32	53	Mike Potekhen	10	14:01.602	17 Laps	8 Laps	1:22.283
33	2	Brad Jaeger	10	14:02.608	+1.006	+1.006	1:22.236
34	92	Daniel Herrington	8	11:05.122	19 Laps	2 Laps	1:21.476
35	4	Chris Meredith	5	7:09.523	22 Laps	3 Laps	1:22.578

Ron White rolls to victory at Mosport International Raceway

Ron White beat the elements and the opposition to winhis second consecutive victory in Round Ten of the Star Mazda Championship .

With the remnants of tropical storm Ernesto sweeping across the track, Ron White, of Santa Clara, California, pulled off a last lap pass for the second consecutive race weekend to capture his second victory of the year in Round Ten of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at Mosport International Raceway. Joining White on the podium after the soggy event were Gerardo Bonilla, who had led most of the race, and Michael Potekhen.

Making his second start of the season for the newly formed Ross Smith Racing, White slid his way from eighth on the grid in the #69 Ross Smith Racing Maxwell Paper Products Mazda to battle Bonilla wheel-to-wheel through the last lap of the race, edging out the victory by 0.540 seconds. "I didn't even see the white flag for the final lap but saw that I was just a little bit better than Gerardo through the turn five and six section," White explained. "I got a good run through the corner and got a good draft off of him and tried to use sixth gear as we came down to turn eight. I didn't lift until I had to at the last minute and I was ahead."

Despite narrowly missing out on his second victory of the season, Bonilla was still satisfied with the race results after leading most of the event, "Ron White was really fast in the turn five complex and that was my weakest point so on the final lap I saw him coming up on me there and we both went into the corner excited and slid around a bit," Bonilla, pilot of the #9 Andersen Racing Team Skip Barber Mazda revealed. "We exited the corner side-by-side and were side-by-side down the entire back straight and then we went into turn eight both thinking we were going to win. Ron was able to edge out just a bit and I backed out as I figured second place was better than a crash. after all the work Andersen Racing Team has done for me."

Potekhen, driving the #53 Apex Racing Avenue Communities Mazda,was in the thick of the action all race long moving into third place early and watched first Charles Anti then Logan Gomez take over the position and then hand it back by spinning off the track in the slick conditions. "It was nasty out there today as you couldn't see anything and the track was really slick. It was like sticking your head out the widow of a car in blizzard when you're trying to drive 120 miles per hour," the Tempe, Arizona resident said. "Ron was able to get by with a good run on me coming onto the back straight when my traction control kicked in but we had a good car today and it feels good to be up front today."

With two races left in the 2006 campaign Adrian Carrio, who started on pole for the event in the #14 World Speed Motorsport Rockford Fosgate Mazda remains in first place after a seventh place finish, watching his lead slip slightly to 41 points over second place competitor Kevin Lacroix, who finished two spots ahead of him in fifth place. Ryan Justice sits in third place with 293 points overall after finishing in sixth place.

In the Expert Championship, for drivers aged 30-44, Bonilla earns the class victory and remains out front in the class championship with 176 points while Brian Thienes holds second place in his #77 JDC Motorsports Thienes Engineering Mazda with 138 points and Dan Tomlin III maintains third place with 130 points in the #56 Team Tomlin Mazda.

In the Masters Championship, for drivers aged 45 and older, Doug Peterson, driving the #87 American Speed Factory 3-Dimensional Services Mazda captured the class victory, finishing twelfth overall and sits on top of the class championship with 151 points. John Faulkner drove his #93 Phenom Racing Group Mazda to second in the class finishing seventeenth overall and climbs to second place with 133 points. Ken Losch drops from second to third in the class 132 points after finishing fourth in class in the #52 Apex Racing Avenue Communities Mazda.

In the Team Championship John Walko Racing climbs into first place with 192 points, World Speed Motorsports drops one spot to second place with 189 points and Apex Racing holds third place with 154 points.

The series now heads to Braselton, Georgia, for the penultimate round of the championship at the world renowned Road Atlanta circuit alongside the American Le Mans Series at the Petit Le Mans weekend on September 27-29. Round Ten of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is scheduled to air on Speed Channel at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 9th. For more information please visit www.starmazda.com

Labour Day Grand Prix of Mosport
Mosport International Raceway / Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, September 2,