2007 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear - Round 5 |
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Event Information and Results |
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Portland International Raceway Event Reports
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Devin Cunningham Scores His First Win at PIR June 9, 2007. Portland, Oregon – Surviving a first-lap, first-turn melee that took out both top qualifiers – and a handful of full-course yellows in between – rookie Devin Cunningham raced his #33 Discovery Channel/AIM Autosport Mazda from 10th on the grid to victory at Portland International Raceway in Round Five of the 2007 Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear. Cunningham won the 2006 Discovery Channel competition, called ‘Star Racer,’ designed to find the next great Canadian racing driver. The 8-part docu-reality series aired last fall and Cunningham is now making the most of his prize, a full-season sponsorship in the 2007 Star Mazda Championship. “We didn’t do well in practice and didn’t qualify particularly well, but the team kept working at it and we got the job done in the race,” said the native of St. Bruno, Quebec. “I paid attention to where other guys were going off course and was extra careful in those places. Beyond that it was a question of patience and picking cars off one at a time. This time last year I was struggling to pay for my go-kart racing and to find myself winning my fifth formula car race, in the rain, is something that will take a while to sink in.” Finishing second, after qualifying 15th, was Cunningham’s AIM Autosport teammate, Natacha Gachnang of St-Gingolph, Switzerland, driving the #35 AIM Autosport Mazda. Gachnang is the first female driver in the modern history of the Star Mazda Championship to finish on the podium. The first was Lynx Racing driver Sara Senske, in the older tube-frame cars, on the Chicago oval ten years ago. “This is a great sensation for me, because I did not expect anything like a podium finish,” she said. “My practice times were in the top-10, but qualifying was bad and I did not expect much from the race until I see everyone spinning in the first turn and suddenly I am in fifth. Then I spin in the second turn and am twelfth, but I was able to keep it on the road after that and the car was good. I worked to really heat the tires up during the yellow flag laps and that helped a lot on the re-starts. I’m very happy for the team that we could be 1-2 at this race.” Santa Clara, California racer Ron White qualified 4th in his #69 Team G.Fro/Wunder-Bar Mazda and led a good portion of the race before tire problems allowed Cunningham and Gachnang to slip by. This is his second year in the series and his second podium of the year. He scored five podium finishes in 2006. “I had a really good car for the race and was running easily at the front until something happened to one of my rear tires and I had trouble with handling and putting the power down coming out of corners,” said White. “The track kept changing as it dried out toward the end of the race so I just drove within the limits of the car and kept it on the road. I worked hard on getting a run on Natacha on the last lap but came up about a foot and a half short. That’s okay, though, we’ll bring it on and get them next time.” Finishing fourth was Dallas, Texas native Russell Walker in the #28 Pavecon/John Walko Racing Mazda, while pole-sitter Marco Di Leo of Toronto, Canada, who was caught up in the first-lap mayhem, brought his #21 Maxwell Paper Products Mazda home in fifth. Provisional points calculations show Dane Cameron, despite his DNF, still in the lead with 177, followed by James Davison with 165 and Marco Di Leo in third with 164. Third-place finisher Ron White is 4th with 155 points while PIR winner Devin Cunningham is in 8th with 135 points.. Seven races remain in the 2007 championship as the series continues its travels with the Champ Car series to Cleveland for Round Six of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear on June 22 - 24. Round Five from Portland is scheduled to air on Sunday, July 1 at 2:00 pm (ET), with a re-broadcast on Thursday, July 5 at 4:00 am (ET). For more information please visit www.starmazda.com
Marco Di Leo captures pole in damp qualifying session June 9, 2007. Portland, Oregon – Under cold, grey, rainy skies that turned the Portland International Raceway track into a skating rink during 45-minute Star Mazda Championship qualifying, Canadian racer Marco Di Leo put his #21 Maxwell Paper Products Mazda on the pole with a lap of 1:09.594 (101.595 mph). Toronto native Di Leo is currently third in the championship points battle and will start from the inside of the front row for this afternoon’s 1-hour Star Mazda Championship race, which is scheduled to take the green flag at 5:00 pm. “The team really nailed the setup and we knew that would be key to qualifying, particularly under these conditions,” said Di Leo. “We made a setup change during the session and it really hooked the car up. I’m not sure if the weather helped or hurt us, but I do know that my lap when the final red flag came out was 5/10ths faster than my pole lap, so I know we’ve got a good car for the race.” Holding the pole position until on-course contact forced him into the pits for repairs was current championship points leader Dane Cameron. Although he spent a good portion of the session having his car worked on, Cameron’s early lap of 1:09.922 (101.118 mph) held up for a second-place starting spot on the outside of the front row. “It was actually the guy who sold us my race car that came across and hit me, but he couldn’t see me and it was just one of those things,” said the 18-year old series rookie from Sonoma, CA. “We got the car fixed but trying to re-align the front suspension in the pits left the handling a bit off, and then the last ten minutes of the session were red-flagged, so I didn’t get a chance to improve. On the up side, if we wind up racing on dry tires this afternoon, I’ll have a real advantage because my set are only one lap from new.” Lining up third on the grid will be Jonny Baker of Farham Common, UK who turned a lap of 1:09.928 in his #6 Andersen Racing Mazda. Rounding out the top five are Santa Clara, CA driver Ron White in his #69 Team G.Fro / Wunder-bar Mazda with a lap of 1:10.056 (100.925 mph) and Jonathan Goring of Norfolk, CT, who drove his #14 Andersen Racing/Skip Barber Racing Mazda to a lap of 1:10.111 (100.846 mph).
Ron White paces second practice session at Portland June 8, 2007. Portland, Oregon – With the track temperature up thanks to sunny skies, lap times for the second practice session of the day were actually a few ticks slower than this morning. Ron White of Santa Clara, CA, who set the fastest time in the first practice session for Round Five of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at Portland International Raceway, repeated his performance in the afternoon session with another fast lap… on the final lap. Driving the #69 Team G.Fro / Wunder-bar Mazda, he lapped the 1.946-mile circuit in a time of 1:09.393 (101.889 mph) to lead the field of 30 drivers entered in this weekend's event. Current series points leader Dane Cameron of Sonoma, CA, who was second in the morning session, was leading the session until that final lap but had to settle for second in his #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda with a lap of 1:09.402 (101.876 mph). A morning member of ‘the nines’ club, but joining the top-5 in the afternoon was Tyson Sy, a racer from Manila, Philippines, who turned a lap of 109.607 (101.576 mph) in his #68 Team G.Fro/Popsy Mazda. Turning the fourth-fastest lap in the afternoon was Nick Haye from Huntington Beach, CA turning a 1:09.777 (101.329 mph) in his #37 JDC Motorsports/NHR Racing Mazda. Although all the cars were slower in the afternoon session than the morning, seven drivers were in the 1:09 bracket and the top 13 cars were all within one second of each other. With clouds already beginning to gather and rain predicted for tomorrow, a 45-minute qualifying session to set the starting grid begins at 9:05 am Saturday morning with the one-hour race scheduled to take the green flag at 5:00 pm Saturday afternoon.
Ron White Leads Opening Session at Portland June 8, 2007. Portland, Oregon – Ron White of Santa Clara, CA set the fastest time in the first practice session for Round Five of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at Portland International Raceway. Driving the #69 Team G.Fro/Wunder-bar Mazda, he lapped the 1.946-mile circuit in a time of 1:09.301 to lead the field of 30 drivers entered in this weekend's event. Current series points leader Dane Cameron of Sonoma, CA, led most of the session in his #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda, but running most of the session on old tires and never getting a clean lap on the new set the team put on in the closing minutes of the session, he had to settle for second place with a lap of 1:09.301. In third was Russell Walker of Dallas, TX, driving the #28 Pavecon Mazda for John Walko Racing with a best lap of 1:09.640. Australian racer James Davison, currently second in the points battle and with a 2nd-place finish in the previous event at Miller Motorsports Park, posted the fourth-best time of 1:09.683 in his #7 Velocity Motorsports/Easternats Mazda. Rounding out the top-5 was Nick Haye, of Huntington Beach, CA with a lap of 1:09.698 in his #37 JDC Motorsports/NHR Racing Mazda. Lorenzo Mandarino, who won the Miller Motorsports Park race and is currently 4th in points finished the first practice session back in 16th with a lap of 1:10.917 in his #23 Team G.Fro / Newway Forming Mazda. An overview of session times shows nine cars within 7/10ths of a second, all in the 1:09 bracket. As the session ended, the overcast is clearing and temperatures rising, so the second session may or may not produce faster times. The one hour afternoon practice session is scheduled to begin at 4:10 pm.
OLD ROSES AND YOUNG LIONS FAST FACTS – The Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear race at this weekend’s Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Presented by G.I. Joe's
There’s going to be a big-time tussle this weekend at Portland International Raceway. With the city winding down its genteel ten-day celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the legendary Rose Festival, the big auto race that crowns the final weekend is set to be the site of a battle royal… a knock-down, drag-out donnybrook among thirty or so of open-wheel racing’s fiercest ‘young lions’ as they claw their way toward the only prize that matters to them; the chance to move one more rung up the ‘motorsports ladder’ that ascends from grassroots kart racing all the way to the rarefied heights of Champ Car. The young lions under discussion are the drivers in the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear, one of the most competitive and successful driver development series in Motorsports history. Since it was created 17 years ago, the Star Mazda series has graduated such luminaries as the only American F1 driver, Scott Speed, Champ Car standout Graham Rahal and rising IRL star Marco Andretti. Among the current crop of Star Mazda standouts are championship points leader Dane Cameron, an 18 year-old rising star from Sonoma, California who is in his first year of Star Mazda racing. His record so far includes two poles, two wins and two 4th-place finishes. With 158 points, Cameron leads by 16 over Australian driver James Davison (also with two poles) with 142 and Canadian Marco Di Leo – who won the season-opener at Sebring – with 131. The winner of the previous Star Mazda event, on May 19 at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, is Vancouver native Lorenzo Mandarino, who currently sits fourth in the points battle with 122. With 44 points awarded for a win, any of these four – or about a dozen other really fast drivers – could upset the apple cart with a surprise victory on the challenging 1.964-mile, 12-turn road course at Portland International Raceway. “PIR is a challenging track to race on because it’s narrow, there are only a couple of places to pass and the track surface changes dramatically from session to session,” says Cameron. “We tested here last week and got what we thought was some useful data, but the weather for race weekend is predicted to be much cooler with a chance of rain, so all that goes out the window and all the top teams have an equal chance. The keys to winning are going to be rolling off the trailer with a good car so you can make the most of every practice lap, and qualifying up front.” An interesting side note is that the Star Mazda Championship is something of a ‘United Nations of Racing’ with drivers not only from around the U.S. and Canada, but also, Venezuela, Switzerland, Pakistan, England and the Philippines. And the series demonstrates another aspect of democracy with special categories for drivers who don’t fit the ‘young lion’ category. The Expert Series is for drivers in the 30 to 44 age range, and the current points leader is Tony Rivera with 72. In the Masters Series category for racers 45 and older, Steve Hickham leads with 76 points. Here’s the story on what they’re 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. This year’s Star Mazda series champion will receive a Mazda-sponsored full-season drive for 2008 in the next series up the ladder, the Cooper Tires Presents The Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda. And the 2008 winner of the Atlantic Championship gets a $2 million sponsorship to help them move up to Champ Car. So… they’re racing for their dream, and for the opportunity of a lifetime. And it all begins on Friday, June 8 with a 30-minute practice session starting at 11:45 am. The one-hour afternoon practice begins at 4:10 pm. A 45-minute qualifying to set the starting grid begins at 9:05 am Saturday morning with the one-hour race scheduled to take the green flag at 5:00 pm Saturday afternoon. PIR is the fifth round of the 12-race 2007 Star Mazda Championship schedule. Star Mazda races are broadcast tape-delayed on SPEED TV. Date and time (all times stated are Eastern) for the one-hour broadcast is available at www.speedtv.com/programs. The PIR event is scheduled to air on Sunday, July 1 at 2:00 pm (ET), with a re-broadcast on Thursday, July 5 at 4:00 am (ET). The next event on the schedule, also on a Champ Car weekend, is at Cleveland on June 22-24. The Star Mazda series will also be racing with Champ Car at Toronto July 6-7. |
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