2007 Star Mazda Championship - Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Louisiana Hotshoe Alex Ardoin Wins His First Star Mazda Championship Race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca / October 20, 2007 -- Following through on a threat he’s been making for the last half of the season, Louisiana hotshoe Alex Ardoin won his first victory in the season finale Round Twelve of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on October 20.

Ardoin, who’s tail-out, slide-happy driving style reminds onlookers of everyone from Gilles Villeneuve to Tony Stewart on Turkey Night at Irwindale, has served regular notice that he’s becoming a force to be reckoned with, and proved it today with a finely-judged pass of new series champion Dane Cameron in the Turn Two hairpin… a pass that, for all its technical elegance, went uncontested due to the multi-part carnage that ensued almost immediately thereafter.

The first 18 laps of the race, which took the green flag at 12:30 pm ran like a freight train; pole sitter Cameron in the #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda holding the lead, followed closely by top qualifiers Lorenzo Mandarino, Ardoin, James Davison and, in the early stages, 16 year-old European wild card, F3 racer Max Chilton of Reigate, England, who showed up to race an ALMS car, was told he was too young and decided to take a flier in the Star Mazda race. He made his bones by qualifying 4th his first time in the #77 Velocity Motorsports/ Benfield Group Mazda but tangled with the series regulars and found himself shuffled back to finish 15th.

Running 18 relatively clean laps at Mazda Raceway with its gravel traps lining every turn is no small accomplishment, and even with pretty much everyone keeping it on the black part, a fair amount of ‘kitty litter’ was spread around the track even in the early stages of the race. On lap 18, Mandarino, who started on the outside of the first row, spun his #15 Team G.FRO/Newway Forming Mazda in going up the hill and was T-boned at speed by Ron White, who had nowhere to go in the #69 Wunder-Bar/Ron White Racing Mazda. Mandarino looked grim in TV close-ups after the fact and White, who had won back-to-back races earlier in the season, qualified 7th and was hoping for a good result to launch his quest for a ride in 2008, was lucky to walk away.

Cleaning up the bits, large and small, took a number of laps, and the race finally went green again with about six minutes remaining. Cameron, whose re-starts up to that point had been flawless, got a bit of wheelspin coming off Turn 11 onto the front straight, which allowed Ardoin in the #51 Mundill Racing/Oral and Facial Surgery Center to get a run on him and set up the pass going into Turn Two. The battle lasted most of one lap before another yellow full-course yellow was thrown for a 4-car melee on the back side of the course that caused the race to finish under yellow.

“The Mundill team gave me a really good race car, and I drove a patient race that went pretty much the way I planned it,” said Ardoin. “I knew my car was as fast as Dane’s and it just took me a while to figure out how to get off that last turn as fast as he was. Once I did that, I was able to execute my pass and was hoping for a good battle for the rest of the race. The yellow flags prevented that, but I’m confident I could hold the lead and feel the race was fairly won. This was a big moment for me, at the biggest race of the year, and I’m really happy for my team and my parents and what this does for my future prospects.”

Ardoin’s record this year includes one pole, two podiums and four top-10 finishes. With his win today, he moved up to finish 6th in the championship with 345 points and collect season prize money of $30,000.

Cameron, who started on the pole – his sixth of the year -- finished a none-too-pleased second. Despite the hunger to win that made him one of only two rookie champions in the 17-year history of the Star Mazda Championship, he could afford to be pragmatic about the result. He had already clinched the championship in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta on October 5 with a record of three wins, six poles, four podiums and two top-5 finishes.

Earlier in the week, Camera had announced that, thanks to the sponsorship provided by the Mazda Motorsports Ladder program, he will be joining the championship winning Sierra Sierra/ProWorks team in the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda. He also won $100,000 for winning the championship and $10,000 for winning Rookie of the Year as well as a 2008 Mazda RX-8 sports car.

“I wanted to win this race for the team, and to go out on top as I move from the Star Mazda Championship to the Champ Car Atlantic series next year,” said the Sonoma, California native who turned 19 on Thursday. “Circumstances during the race made that impossible, but Alex is a talented and deserving winner and I salute his victory here today.”

Finishing 3rd in the race, and clinching 2nd in the championship, was Australian racer James Davison. He qualified 5th in the #7 Velocity Motorsports/Easternats Mazda, and ran nose-to-tail with the leaders in the first half of the race. Like Cameron, he had a car capable of winning, was unable to capitalize on that potential under the circumstances. He finished the season with 352 points and collected $70,000 in prize money.

The Expert Series race-within-a-race for drivers aged 30 to 44 was won by Dan Tomlin III, driver of the #55 Team Tomlin Mazda, who also clinched the 2008 Expert Series championship with a record of three class wins and four class podiums.

The Master Series category, for drivers 45 and older, was won by Tomlin’s father, 64 year-old Dan Tomlin Jr., driver of the #58 Team Tomlin Mazda. He finished second in the Masters championship with a record of two class wins and seven class podiums. Finishing 2nd in the Masters class was Steve Hickham, who had already clinched the class championship in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta. Driving the #17 Maxwell Racing/HB Turbo Mazda, he compiled a record of five class wins and five class podiums.

Today’s season finale brought to a close a hard-fought 17th season of Star Mazda Championship racing that saw eight different winners in 12 races, and only three drivers, Cameron, White and Mandarino, win more than one race. Drivers from eight different countries competed and prizes worth almost $1.5 million were awarded. And next year promises to be bigger, better and more interesting with the series announcing that it will add Watkins Glen to the schedule, move to Goodyear radial tires and implement standing starts in 2008.

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.

Dane Cameron, who already clinched the 2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta, this morning added an exclamation point to his season with his sixth pole position of the year. Driving his #19 JDC Motorsports/ Finlay Motorsports Mazda to a lap of 1:20.491 (100.096 mph) around a treacherously damp Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, he will start from the inside of the front row for this afternoon’s season finale Round Twelve.

“The track was half wet and half dry, so it was a case of the driver who wanted the pole the most was going to get it; and I wanted it the most,” says the native of Sonoma, California who turned 19 on Thursday. “Partly its a response to my Road Atlanta race where I won the championship with an 8th-place finish. It was a difficult weekend, though we had a good car for the race and actually set fastest lap, but I just did what I had to do and took no chances. This weekend, I wanted to make it clear to everyone that 8th is not representative of what the team and I can do, and we’re out to do today what we’ve done several times this year – win from the pole after leading every lap.”

Cameron has won three races so far this season, and started from the pole on airport circuits, street courses and natural-terrain tracks. He has only finished out of the top-4 twice and has already signed with the Sierra Sierra/ProWorks team to compete in the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda.

Starting on the outside of the front row will be Round Eleven winner Lorenzo Mandarion, who also stood on the top step of the podium at Round Four in Salt Lake City. Mandarino, driver of the #15 Team G.FRO/Newway Forming Mazda been fast all weekend and topped the time sheets in the final practice session on Friday afternoon. His qualifying lap was a 1:20.505 (100.078 mph).

Starting third will be the spectacular Alex Ardoin of Lafayette, Louisiana. He has thrilled the fans in the latter part of the season with his sprint-car style approach to driving, and it seems to be paying off in better results as well. He turned a lap of 1:20.586 in the #51 Mundill/Oral and Facial Surgery Center Mazda.

In fourth is the real shocker of the weekend, first-time Star Mazda Championship driver Max Chilton of Reigate, England. A 16 year-old student who has spent five years karting in Europe and a year in British Formula 3, he came to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca intending to drive in the American Le Mans series race but was not allowed to enter because of his age. He quickly found a seat with the Velocity Motorsports Star Mazda team and turned a lap of 1:20.775 (99.744) in the #77 Velocity Motorsports/Benfield Group Mazda.

Rounding out the top-5 on the grid for the start of this afternoon’s race are Aussie rocket James Davison, who won Round Ten at Mosport. He turned a lap of 1:20.775 (99.739 mph).

The 45-minute Round Twelve season finale of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will take the green flag at 12:30 pm Saturday.

Star Mazda races are broadcast on the SPEED Channel, with the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca event scheduled to air on Saturday, October 27 at 3:30 pm. The race will be re-boradcast on Monday, October 29th at 3:00 pm and again at 4:00 am. All times are ET. To confirm this air time and find out when future Star Mazda races will air, log on to www.speedtv.com/programs.

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.

Dean Case / Communications Officer / MAZDASPEED Motorsports
Office - (310) 755-7403 / Cell - (310) 318-4582 / E-mail: dean@RWB-LLC.com

On as fine a day for motor racing as you’ll ever see, the sort of day Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca seems to specialize in, the cars and drivers of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear took to the track for two timed practice sessions. In both, the weather was cool, no wind, low humidity and just enough cloud cover to keep the sun from heating up the track.

In the morning, the top-5 on the time sheet was occupied by James Davison, Dane Cameron, Lorenzo Mandarino, Marco DiLeo and Johathan Goring. Davison was the only driver in the 1:20s, turning a 1:20.819 (99.689 mph) in his #7 Velocity Motorsports /Easternats Mazda. Cameron, who clinched the Star Mazda championship battle in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta on October 5, was a close second with a lap of 1:21.051 (98.705 mph) in his #19 JDC Motorsports/ Finlay Motorsports Mazda. The final three were several tenths back, but all very close, all within a tenth of a second of each other.

The afternoon session was oddly slower. The hottest lap, 1:21.346 (99.044 mph) was set by Lorenzo Mandarino in the #15 Team G.Fro/Newway Forming Mazda on lap 10. Daviso dropped back to 2nd-fast with a lap of 1:21.625 (98.705 mph) and Cameron was third quick, turning a 1:21.796 (98.499 mph). Cameron’s teammate, Nick Haye, moved up from 6th in the morning to make an appearance in the top-5 in the afternoon session, turning a 1:21.001 (98.252 mph) in his #37 JDC Motorsports/Quantum Sphere Mazda. Rounding out the top-5 was Ron White, who could do no better than 12th in the morning session, turning a 1:22.006 (98.246 mph) in his #69 Wunder-Bar/Ron White Racing Mazda.

“We were fastest yesterday in testing, and fastest again this morning, so I think we’ve got the measure of the track and what setup we need to go for the win in the race,” says Davison, won Round Ten at Mosport. “We were running a race simulation this afternoon and were more interested in how the car changed over a long run than in setting the fastest lap.”

Qualifying to set the starting grid for the race will take place from 8:00 am to 8:30 am Saturday, October 20. The 45-minute Round Twelve season finale of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will take the green flag at 12:30 pm Saturday.

Fast Facts - Round Twelve of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at the American Le Mans Series' Monterey Sports Car Championships at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

- This is the Round Twelve finale of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. The 45-minute race begins at 12:30 pm, Saturday, Oct. 20. SPEED Channel will air the race in a 1-hour broadcast at 3:30 pm ET Saturday, October 27.

- The 2007 Star Mazda Championship was won by rookie Dane Cameron in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta on Oct. 5. He is only the second rookie in the 17 year history of the series to win the championship. Thanks to the Mazda Motorsport Ladder program, he will move up to the Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda in 2008.

- Also as part of the Mazda Motorsports Ladder program, Joel Miller, winner of the 2007 BF Goodrich/Skip Barber National Championship Presented by Mazda, will receive a full-season sponsorship to race in the 2008 Star Mazda Championship. He has already tested with a top team in the series.

- The Star Mazda Championship is one of the richest, most successful and prolific driver development series in all of auto racing. The combined value of various prizes approaches $1.5 million in value; graduates of the series have gone on to Formula One, Champ Car, the Indy Racing League and the Grand-Am Rolex Series.

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With the Round Twelve season finale scheduled to take the green flag at 12:30 pm Saturday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, this is the last chance to shine this season for the rising open-wheel racing stars of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.

Two of the series’ three championships were clinched in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta on October 5. Dane Cameron, a native of Sonoma, California who turned 19 on Thursday, became only the second rookie in the 17-year history of the Star Mazda Championship to win both the title and Rookie of the Year award in their first season.

His 2007 record, so far, in the #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda, is three wins, five pole positions, four podium finishes and two top-5 finishes. He has finished out of the top-5 only twice so far this year. As a result, courtesy of the unique Mazda Motorsports Ladder program, Cameron will move up to the Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda in 2008.

In the Masters Series, a championship-within-a-championship for drivers aged 45 and over, Steve Hickham of Corpus Christi, Texas, clinched the title with a 2nd-in-class/13th-overall finish. Driving the #17 Maxwell Racing/HB Turbo Mazda, Hickham’s 2007 Star Mazda record includes five class wins and five podium finishes. The Expert Series for drivers aged 30 to 44, will be settled this weekend.

The fact that the championship has been won means that the drivers this weekend have been relieved of considerable inhibiting pressures and what fans will be seeing is open wheel racing at its most exuberant, the high-speed equivalent of hand-to-hand combat for the final honors available – winner of the last race of the season, and 2nd- and 3rd-place in the championship.

Top contenders for victory this weekend, in addition to Dane Cameron, include Australian racer James Davison, driver of the #7 Velocity Motorsports/Easternats Mazda. Davison, currently second in the championship with 352 points, has had a somewhat controversial season, crossing the finish line first in three races but having two victories taken away due to on-track rules violations. His victory in Round Ten at Mosport stands, however, and his record also includes three pole positions, one podium and five top-5 finishes. He finished 5th in Round Eleven at Road Atlanta.

Another contender for victory and a top-3 ranking in the championship is Ron White, of Santa Clara, California. He changed teams at the halfway point of the season and responded by scoring two victories in a row, at Road America and Trois Rivières, in the #69 Maxwell Racing/Maxwell Paper Mazda… but his momentum evaporated with a practice crash at Mosport and a 17th-place finish. In yet another dramatic twist, his relationship with the Maxwell team has ended and he is running the final two races on his own. This is his second season in the Star Mazda Championship (he won three races in a row in 2006) and he stands third in the points with 343. He finished 6th at Road Atlanta.

And Vancouver’s Lorenzo Mandarino, driver of the #23 Newway Forming/Team G.Fro Mazda, brought his victory total for the year to two win a win at Road Atlanta and is a prime candidate to repeat at Laguna Seca. He has scored one podium finish and two top-5s, but a number of out-of-the-money results has taken its toll and he stands 7th in the championship with 311 points.

Other top contenders include the remainder of the podium at Road Atlanta, notably Quebec racer Devin Cunningham who finished 2nd. He won the Discovery Channel’s ‘Star Racer’ competition in 2006, and is racing his prize in 2007 – the #33 Discovery Channel/SH Karting Mazda fielded by AIM Autosport. He won Round Five of the Star Mazda Championship at Portland and finished 2nd in Toronto but difficulties in several other races have relegated him, currently, to 4th in the championship with 317 points.

Finishing third at Road Atlanta was newly-emerging talent Alex Ardoin of Lafayette, Louisiana, driver of the #51 Mundill/Oral and Facial Surgery Center Mazda. He has two podium finishes to his credit this year, and four top-10 finishes, but his sliding sideways driving style is exhilarating to watch. He is 8th in the championship with 301 points. Other driver to keep an eye on include Jonathan Goring, winner of Round Six at Cleveland in the #14 Andersen Racing/Skip Barber Racing Mazda and Nick Haye driving the #37 JDC Motorsports/ Quantum Sphere Mazda as well as Toronto’s Marco Di Leo (who won the season-opener at Sebring) in the #21 Maxwell Paper/Nugget Mazda.

The Star Mazda Championship also has categories for more experienced racers in whom the competitive fire still burns brightly. Top competitors in the Expert Series (drivers aged 30 to 44) include Tony Rivera (#52 Mundill Racing Mazda), who leads the points battle with four class wins, Dan Tomlin III (#56 Team Tomlin Mazda) with one class win and seven top-3 in class finishes, Phil Fogg, Jr.(#29 Northwest Autosport/Consus Health Services Mazda) and Road Atlanta class winner Richard Zober (#66 Comprent Motorsports/Zober Industries Mazda)

Master Series competitors include class champion Steve Hickham (#17 Maxwell Racing/HB Turbo Mazda), Dan Tomlin Jr. (father of Expert Series driver Dan Tomlin III and driver of the #58 Team Tomlin Mazda) and Gerry Kraut (#55 JDC Motorsports/Dougherty & Co. Mazda), who has four class wins this year, including Road Atlanta.

While the Expert and Master drivers run for love of the speed and competition, for the younger drivers the Star Mazda Championship is the college football of open-wheel racing, an exciting, competitive and well-established training ground for future stars of the sport. Alumni of the Star Mazda Championship include such top open-wheel racers as Champ Car star Graham Rahal, IRL standout Marco Andretti and America’s most recent Formula One driver Scott Speed.

Also on the list of graduates is Michael McDowell, the 2004 Star Mazda champion who has raced Champ Cars, Daytona Prototypes and has just completed a star-making rookie season in the RE/MAX ARCA series on his way up the NASCAR ladder. And 2005 Star Mazda Champion Raphael Matos, who graduated via the Mazda Motorsports Ladder to the Champ Car Atlantic series in 2006, won the championship this year and will move up to Champ Car in 2008.

And here’s the story on what the latest pride of young lions are all fighting for; forty years ago, on May 31, 1967, Mazda introduced the first street car with a rotary engine, the Cosmo Sport. Since then, they’ve built two million rotary-engined vehicles and the company has built its very identity on the idea of Zoom-Zoom and every vehicle they produce having the soul of a sports car.

In pursuit of that ideal, the company has created the unique Mazda Motorsports Ladder that reaches all the way from karting to Champ Car. The winner of a shootout among 2007 karting champions will get a scholarship in the 2008 Skip Barber series, while the Skip Barber champion moves up to Star Mazda, the Star Mazda champion moves up to the Champ Car Atlantic Series Powered by Mazda and the Atlantic champion gets $2 million, provided by Champ Car, toward a Champ Car drive.

So they’re all racing for a dream, and the opportunity of a lifetime. The series champion not only gets the full-season Atlantic sponsorship, he also receives $100,000 for winning the championship. The series’ ‘Rookie of the Year’ award is worth $10,000 and prize money is paid down through the field to 15th place, a total -- with contingency awards from participating suppliers such as Goodyear, BBS Wheels, Quartermaster Clutches, VP Fuels, Performance Friction Brakes and Staubli Dry Break Systems – approaching $1.5 million in 2007.

All the drivers in the 12-race 2007 Star Mazda Championship are racing identical high-tech open-wheel cars that feature a carbon fiber chassis, fully-adjustable suspension and a sequential 6-speed gearbox. Powering all of the Star Mazda race cars is Mazda’s legendary ‘Renesis’ rotary engine that produces 240 horsepower, top speeds of over 150 mph and 0 to 60 mph acceleration of 2.4 seconds. This engine is so reliable that it can last an entire racing season without a re-build, helping to keep the cost of racing in Star Mazda down to a fraction of the budget required to compete in any comparable open wheel series in the U.S. or Europe.

On-track action at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca begins with testing sessions on Thursday, October 18 and a pair of timed practice sessions on Friday, October 19. Qualifying to set the starting grid for the race will take place from 8:00 am to 8:30 am Saturday, October 20. The 45-minute Round Twelve season finale of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will take the green flag at 12:30 pm Saturday. Star Mazda races are broadcast on the SPEED Channel, with the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca event scheduled to air on Saturday, October 27 at 3:30 pm. The race will be re-boradcast on Monday, October 29th at 3:00 pm and again at 4:00 am. All times are ET. To confirm this air time and find out when future Star Mazda races will air, log on to www.speedtv.com/programs.

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.