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2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear - Round 10 |
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-- IN CONFUSION THERE IS PROFIT – Mosport, Canada / August 25, 2007 – Australian racer James Davison took advantage of the confusion resulting from pit stops and tire changes caused by a brief early-race downpour to take his first victory in the Mosport round of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. Vancouver native Lorenzo Mandarino finished second while series championship leader Dane Cameron filled out the podium. “I started fifth but I got a good run into Turn One while it was still dry on the opening lap and stayed out several extra laps when it started raining while everyone else pitted,” said the driver of the #7 Velocity Motorsports / Easternats Mazda. “I pitted in the lead but by crew did a great job changing tires and I only lost four places. There was only one full-course yellow and it was difficult to pass lapped traffic, but my car was good as the track dried out toward the end of the race and I just stayed out of trouble and brought it home.” Davison has crossed the finish line first in two previous races, Sebring and Road America, only to be stripped of his victories for ‘driving infractions’ by series officials. His 2007 record also includes two poles, two podiums and three top-5 finishes. Mandarino who won at Round Four at Salt Lake City, but finished 19th, 15th and 13th in the last three races, finally got his luck turned around. He put the #15 Team G.FRO/Newway Forming Mazda third on the grid for the start, but profited from the confusion in the opening laps. “With the rain and the pit stops and the full-course yellow, it was difficult to know who was running where and who I needed to pass,” he said. “I just followed the orders my team was giving me over the radio and kept passing people until I got by Cameron. I had a good run at Davison in the last two laps but just couldn’t quite get there. Given the luck I’ve been having lately, 2nd-place feels like a win.” Series championship leader Dane Cameron, driver of the #19 JDC Motorsports/ Finlay Motorsports Mazda, started the race from the pole, but gave up the lead to Jonathan Goring’s #14 Andersen Racing/Skip Barber Racing Mazda at the start. He pitted for rain tires on the second lap and dropped back to 8th, eventually working his way up to 2nd in the closing laps before finally finishing 3rd, his fourth podium finish of the year. His race record also includes five poles, three wins and two top-5 finishes. “I didn’t get a great start and we probably waited too long to pit because it cost us a lot of track positions,” said the 18 year-old native of Sonoma, California. “I was hoping for a little sprinkle and a full-course yellow, but we got a short downpour that stopped almost immediately and left us out on rain tires on a drying track for the rest of the race. I was on a full dry setup and it was fast but just chewed up the tires and I had to back off to make it to the finish. No racer is every happy with finishing third, but we accomplished the main mission of increasing our points lead and I’m hoping to be able to wrap up the championship in the next race at Road Atlanta in October.” Suffering the most in the race was Californian Ron White, who’s back-to-back victories in Round 8 at Road America and Round 9 at Trois Rivieres had him looking like a late-season championship contender. But he crashed in practice and damaged his rear wing in the race, forcing him to pit for several laps for repairs. He ultimately finished 20th, six laps behind. The 2007 Star Mazda Championship points battle still has Cameron in the lead with 381 points, followed by Davison with 319 and White with 313. Rounding out the top-5 are Cameron’s JDC Motorsports teammate Nick Haye, driver of the #37 JDC/Quantum Sphere Mazda with 285 points and Jonathan Goring with 282 points. The highest-finishing driver in the Expert class for racers between 30 and 44 years of age, was Texan Tony Rivera who finished an excellent 6th in his #52 Mundill Mazda. He also leads the Expert points battle with 112 points, four wins and two 2nd-place finishes. Dan Tomlin III, driver of the #56 Team Tomlin Mazda finished second in the Expert Series at Mosport and is third in the class championship with 88 points, two wins and three 2nd-place finishes. Star Mazda races are broadcast on the SPEED Channel, with the Mosport event scheduled to air on Saturday, September 11 at 12 pm Eastern. To 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.
-- Saturday Qualifying -- In a foggy and tense qualifying session that resembled the ‘waiting game’ practice by Formula 1 teams, championship points leader Dane Cameron turned just eight laps, but one of them a true flier of 1:15.745 (116.871 mph) – and then waited until the clock ticked down – to score his fifth pole of the season for this afternoon’s Round Ten of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear race at Mosport. “We’ve been making good progress throughout the sessions leading up to the weekend, and we have a race-winning car whether the weather is wet or dry for the race,” said the 18 year-old from Sonoma, California who has won three races and finished on the podium three times so far this year. “My total focus right now is to win this race and try to wrap the title up at the next race at Road Atlanta in October. The JDC team is working at a very high level right now, despite a very limited budget, and we’re all feeling very confident.” Cameron set a quick lap in the low 1:16s early in the session, and sat in the pits watching Jonathan Goring of Norfolk, Connecticut, whittle away at the 4/10ths of a second gap that separated the two. When it got down to 2/10ths, Cameron displayed one of the indispensable qualities of a top driver by taking to the track for an additional three laps and going a half-second faster before returning to watch the clock in pit lane. The skies opened up for their daily downpour just minutes after the session ended, but before they did, Goring, driver of the his #14 Andersen Racing/Skip Barber Racing Mazda, turned a lap of 1:16.047 (116.407 mph), slotting in next to Cameron on the front row of the starting grid. Directly behind Cameron, third on the grid, will be Canadian racer Lorenzo Mandarino, who led last week’s Round Nine at Trois Rivières before being punted off into the Turn 6 tire wall. He turned a lap of 1:16.059 (116.389 mph) in his #15 Team G.FRO/Newway Forming Mazda. Rounding out the top-5 for this afternoon’s race are Toronto’s Marco Di Leo, driver of the #21 Maxwell Racing/Nugget Casino Mazda. After qualifying on the front row for eight of the season’s ten races so far, Di Leo’s lap of 1:16.148 (116.253 mph) was good for 4th on the grid. Staring 5th will be Australian racer James Davison, who turned a lap of 1:16.148 (116.253 mph) in his #7 Velocity Motorsports / Easternats Mazda. Davison is hungry for both vindication and validation, having been deprived of his victory at Road America by series officials for driving infractions, and then being caught up in a first-lap, multi-car accident last weekend at Trois Rivières. In 6th is the Star Mazda Championship’s lone female racer, Natacha Gachnang, a Swiss driver with experience in the European Formula BMW series. She joined the Star Mazda series part way into the season and made series history be becoming the first female driver to score back-to-back podium finishes at Portland and Cleveland. Her lap of 1:16.497 (115.722 mph) in the #35 AIM Autosport Mazda puts her in touch with the lead pack, and the hilly Mosport track is well-suited to her driving style. Also positioned for a potential charge to the front are Russell Walker (#28 John Walko Racing/Pavecon), Devin Cunningham (#33 AIM Autosport/Discovery Channel), Nick Haye (#37 JDC Motorsports/Quantum Sphere) and Jonny Baker (#6 Andersen Racing). The 45-minute Star Mazda Championship race is scheduled to take the green flag at 3:50 pm Saturday afternoon.
-- FRIDAY PRACTICE SESSIONS -- On a damp but drying track in the first official Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear practice session at Mosport, Trois Rivières pole-sitter Alex Ardoin put in the fastest lap, a 1:17.093 (114.828 mph) in his #51 Mundill / Oral and Facial Surgery Center Mazda. Close behind was Englishman Jonathan Goring, who posted a lap of 1:17.135 (114.765 mph) in his #14 Andersen Racing / Skip Barber Racing Mazda. In third was 2007 championship points leader Dane Cameron driving the #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda. His lap of 1:17.477 was good for an average speed of 114.258 mph around the 2.5-mile, 10-turn Mosport road course. In fourth was Ron White, winner of the last two races at Road America and Trois Rivières. He turned a lap of 1:17.513 (114.205 mph) in the #69 Maxwell Paper Racing / Maxwell Paper Products Mazda. Rounding out the top-5 was the series’ lone female driver, Natacha Gachnang, who drew on her European wet-track experience to post a lap of 1:17.604 in the #35 AIM Autosport Mazda. The 45-minute afternoon session was a different affair entirely, with a dry track, tumbling lap times and a shakeup of the running order. James Davison, the Australian racer who drives the #7 Velocity Motorsports / Easternats Mazda, was 20th in the morning, but posted the fastest lap later in the day, a 1:16.384 (115.893 mph). Dane Cameron, showing the consistency that has earned him a commanding lead in the points championship, was 2nd-fast with a lap of 1:16.452 (115.790 mph). Ron White suffered a trip into the wall during the session, but not before posting a 3rd-fastest lap of 1:16.838 (115.209 mph). Cameron’s JDC Motorsports teammate, Nick Haye, who finished on the podium in the last two races, was 4th-fast in his #37 JDC Motorsports / Quantum Sphere Mazda with a lap of 1:16.888 (115.134 mph). Canadian racer Lorenzo Mandarino made an appearance in the top-5 with a lap of 1:16.928 (115.074 mph) in his #15 Team G.FRO / Newway Forming Mazda. In both sessions, times toward the top of the field were very close, with less than a second separating the top-10 in the morning session, and the top-8 all with a second of each other in the afternoon. With weather always a big factor at Mosport and rains storms expected to pass through the area during the day, qualifying, scheduled for 9:15 am to 10:00 am Saturday morning, may be a tense affair indeed. The 45-minute Star Mazda Championship race is scheduled to take the green flag at 3:50 pm Saturday afternoon. Star Mazda races are broadcast on the SPEED Channel, with the Mosport event scheduled to air on Saturday, September 11 at 12 pm Eastern. To 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, or contact Communications Director Peter Frey at (818) 398-5733 or StarMazdaPR@aol.com. _____________________________________ On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas on the road-race tracks of America than any other brand of vehicle. At the track, you’ll see MX-5 Miata, RX-8, MAZDA3, MAZDA6, RX-7 and other vintage Mazda models competing, because every Mazda has the Soul of a Sports Car. For more information on the various Mazda spec series, visit
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS –
FAST FACTS – The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at the Mobile 1 Presents Grand Prix of Mosport, Aug. 24 -26
___________________________ The rising open-wheel racing stars of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will take their fast and furious battle for a shot at racing’s Big Time to one of Canada’s premier racing events – the Mobile 1 Presents Grand Prix of Mosport, August 24 – 26. The Star Mazda Championship is the Junior A hockey of open-wheel racing, an exciting, competitive and well-established training ground for future stars of the sport. With help from Mazda’s newly-established ‘motorsports ladder,’ the cream of the crop will graduate to the Champ Car Atlantic series (the equivalent of the AHL), and from there to the Champ Car World Series (open-wheel racing’s NHL). Alumni of the Star Mazda Championship include such top open-wheel racers as Champ Car star Graham Rahal, IRL standout Marco Andretti and ex-F1-soon-to-be NASCAR racer Scott Speed. Also on the alumni list are Canadian Atlantic series racers James Hinchcliffe and Kevin Lacroix as well as Michael McDowell, the 2004 Star Mazda champion who has raced Champ Cars, Daytona Prototypes and is now battling to become the ARCA stock car champion in his rookie year. This year’s crop of young lions clawing their way to the top of the 12-race 2007 Star Mazda Championship includes three Canadians – Toronto’s Marco Di Leo, Devin Cunningham from Quebec and Vancouver racer Lorenzo Mandarino. All three Canadians competing in the 2007 Star Mazda Championship are accomplished racers; all have one win and each is a serious threat to repeat that victory on any given weekend… if they can turn their luck around at Mosport. Toronto’s Marco Di Leo, runner-up in the 2006 Skip Barber National Championship and driver of the #21 Maxwell Paper/Nugett Mazda, won the season-opener at Sebring. He continued his nearly unbroken string of front-row qualifying efforts at Trois Rivières only to get tangled up in a first-lap, multi-car accident. The nose of his car was knocked off requiring several visits to the pits for repairs and he finally exited the race with terminal mechanical problems. “When you have a string of bad luck, each race becomes as much a mental battle as a physical and mechanical one,” says Di Leo, who was on pole but finished 8th at Road America and was 13th after starting on the outside of the front row in Toronto. “Fortunately I’m confident about my driving skills and my team. I ran a Formula BMW race at Mosport last year, so I know the track and I’m feeling good about the weekend. I’ll also be bringing my karting team to Mosport for Sunday’s Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship and we’re third in that championship with a good chance to win.” Quebec racer Devin Cunningham won the Discovery Channel’s ‘Star Racer’ competition in 2006, and is racing his prize – the #33 Discovery Channel/SH Karting Mazda fielded by AIM Autosport. A top kart racer, Cunningham won Round Five of the Star Mazda Championship at Portland. He endured a difficult weekend at Trois Rivières, qualifying 13th and being knocked out of the race on the first lap in the same accident that damaged Di Leo’s car. In fact, the top-finishing Canadian in Trois Rivières was Quebec’s Yannick Hofman, an impressive second-year Formula BMW competitor driving a one-off race in the #00 Jig-A-Loo/Andersen Racing Mazda as a prelude to joining the Star Mazda Championship full-time in 2008. After practicing in the top-10 on Friday and qualifying 8th on Saturday, he drove a clean race on Sunday to finish 5th. Carrying front-running momentum into Mosport, the third of three back-to-back Star Mazda Championship races are a trio of Californians – Ron White, Dane Cameron and Nick Haye – the same three that occupied the podium, in the same order, at both Round Eight in Road America on August 11 and Round 9 in Trois Rivières last Sunday. White, a second-year Star Mazda Championship racer who changed teams just prior to Road America and now drives the #69 Maxwell Paper Racing/Maxwell Paper Products Mazda, has shown sudden form in winning back-to-back races at Road America and Trois Rivières. He had a similar late-season burst of success in 2006 when he put together three wins in a row at Road America, Mosport and Road Atlanta. “Mosport is a very technical track, so the driver and the car have to both be working at a very high level to win there,” says White, second in the championship with 294 points. “Some of the factors in the weekend will include the new tire compound all the Star Mazda cars will be using, which will mix things up a bit in terms of car setup, as well as the way the track changes as the ALMS cars put rubber down during the weekend. And of course there’s always the weather factor. I won here last year with a last-lap pass in the rain, so I’m definitely expecting an exciting race.” Dominating the Star Mazda Championship battle so far with 343 points is 18 year-old Dane Cameron, the young Californian who has scored three wins, four poles and four top-5 finishes driving the #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda. He brings a formidable resume with him to Mosport, including the 2005 SCCAR Formula Jim Russell Championship and Rookie of the Year award and 2nd-place/Rookie of the Year in the 2006 F2000 championship. As winner of the Team USA scholarship in 2006, he won the Formula Palmer Audi Winter Championship. A newly-emerging talent in the Star Mazda Championship is Cameron’s JDC Motorsports teammate, fellow Californian Nick Haye, driver of the #37 JDC Motorsports/Quantum Sphere Mazda. His early-season record includes four top-10 finishes, but he scored his first podium with a 3rd-place finish at Road America and followed it up with a similar performance at Trois Rivières. Also top contenders for victory at Mosport are Australian James Davison (#7 Easternats/Velocity Motorsports Mazda) and Russell Walker, driver of the #29 Pavecon/John Walko Racing Mazda who turned only one lap in qualifying at Trois Rivières, started last and moved up through the field to finish 4th as well as an extremely fast young lady from Switzerland, Natacha Gachnang (#35 AIM Autosport Mazda), who made Star Mazda series history by scoring back-to-back podium finishes in Rounds 5 and 6. At the other end of the age spectrum, Star Mazda Championship “Master Class” racers include 50 year-old Steve Hickham of Corpus Christi, Texas (#17 HB Turbo/Hickham Motorsports) and 64 year-old Dan Tomlin Jr. of Dallas, Texas (#56 Team Tomlin). Tomlin races with his son and business partner, 42 year-old Dan Tomlin III (#58 Team Tomlin). Also in the Master Class is Gerry Kraut, 56, from North Oaks, Minnesota (#55 Dougherty and Company/JDC Motorsports) and Chuck Hulse of Yorba Linda, California, a newcomer to the Star Mazda series who has scored two top-10 finishes in his first two races driving the #68 Team G.FRO/Silicon Salvage Mazda. 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 paddle shifters on the steering wheel, just like both Champ Car and Formula One. Powering all of the Star Mazda race cars is Mazda’s legendary rotary engine that produces 240 horsepower, top speeds of 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 other open wheel series in the U.S. or Europe. And here’s the story on what the 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, Mazda has created a unique, company-sponsored ‘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 toward a Champ Car drive. So they’re all racing for a dream, and the opportunity of a lifetime. On-track action at Mosport begins with a pair of practice sessions on Thursday, August 24, followed by one more practice session on Friday the 25th. Qualifying to set the starting grid takes place from 9:15 am to 10:00 am, Saturday, August 26. The 45-minute Star Mazda Championship race is scheduled to take the green flag at 3:50 pm Saturday afternoon. Teams and drivers will then have the entire month of September off to rest and re-build race cars before heading down the home stretch with the final two races of the season, Road Atlanta on October 4 – 5 and the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Northern California October 19 – 20. Star Mazda races are broadcast on the SPEED Channel, with the Mosport event scheduled to air on Saturday, September 11 at 12 pm Eastern. To 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. _________________________________ On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas on the road-race tracks of America than any other brand of vehicle. At the track, you’ll see MX-5 Miata, RX-8, MAZDA3, MAZDA6, RX-7 and other vintage Mazda models competing, because every Mazda has the Soul of a Sports Car. For more information on the various Mazda spec series, visit Dean Case / Communications Officer / MAZDASPEED Motorsports
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