Inside The Helmet – Gustavo Menezes

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe have a wonderful chat with Gustavo Menezes, full-time driver for Juncos Racing in the Star Mazda Championship and part-time driver for the Interwetten.com Junior Team in the Formula Renault 2.0 (Eurocup and Alps divisions). Gustavo revisits his action-packed weekend at the Infineon Raceway and his battle with Nick Andries, describes the challenges and benefits to racing both here in the US and in Europe, and explains the differences between the two racing cultures. We hope you enjoy listening to Gustavo’s thoughts and insights…

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Star Mazda Wrap-up – Iowa Results, and a Mid-Season Summary

Its been an eventful week for the Mazda Road to Indy, for both good and bad reasons. Before we get into the drama filled soap opera that has suddenly surrounded the Firestone Indy Lights series, let’s first focus on the outstanding racing we saw at the Iowa Speedway this past weekend and amid-season new-driver announcement from Jensen MotorSport and Andretti Autosport. Racing at the Iowa Speedway The Star Mazda race at the Iowa Speedway started out much like most oval races in this series. The opening laps were an absolute…

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Inside the Helmet – Peter Dempsey

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe were fortunate enough to have a wonderful conversation with the winningest driver in the history of the Star Mazda Championship, scoring a total of 9 wins over the 2008 and 2009 season, Peter Dempsey. Dempsey now drives the #36 Pulse/Microbiology car for O2 Racing Technology in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Last weekend in his first race, he led the first 11 laps of the race, and finished on the podium in P3. In our interview, Peter talks with us about his early…

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Star Mazda – Barber Testing: Day 2 Wrap-Up

Well, apparently there was an afternoon practice session! I was away on errands and wasn’t able to watch the timing and scoring develop, although after looking at the results, it looks like business as usual for Tristan Vautier. The young Frenchman claimed the fast time of the session once again for JDC MotorSports and really looks to be the easy favourite come St. Petersburg. The Juncos racing squad found their way back to the top portion of the time sheet with Joao Horta and Martin Scuncio slotting up in P2…

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Star Mazda – Barber Testing Results

The Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear held its first open test today at Barber Motorsports Park in preparation for the season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg later this month. For many of the drivers, it was the first time being out in traffic in the Star Mazda cars. The testing results weren’t too surprising. JDC MotorSports is a strong team, especially in Star Mazda where they’ve won the championship with Dane Cameron in 2007 and with Adam Christodoulou in 2009, and they’ve shown that they’re serious about…

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Star Mazda – Juncos Racing’s Grueling Pre-Season Testing

The Juncos Racing quartet of Tatiana Calderon, Joao Horto, Gustavo Menezes, and Martin Scuncio completed a program of pre-season testing sessions in their 2011 Star Mazda machines at three very diverse tracks: Sebring International Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Roebling Road. The testing session was done “boot camp” style where the team went from one track to the next in rapid succession without respite for the four young drivers. This forced the four drivers not only to become more focused on their own race craft, but also gave them the opportunity…

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Star Mazda – Junco Racing Announces Its Four-Driver Lineup for 2011.

Who said anything about an off-season? There’s been no off-season this year, there’s just been no cars on track. The business of motorsport, and especially everything open-wheel, has been running at full-steam lately. Its been hard to keep up with all of the positive news and announcements. Carrying on with that theme, Juncos Racing announced the drivers for its four-car effort in the Star Mazda Championship today. Some names are familiar to those who followed Star Mazda last year, others are new, but here they all are: Tatiana Calderon, Martin…

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