While a little moist at times, the Barber Motorsports Park featured some great racing in the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear, and a bit of a mixup in regards to who we saw on the podium and especially on the top step. Unfortunately, Barber gets a bad wrap for a course that doesn’t permit much in the way of passing. I think every series there this weekend proved that Barber could support some great racing action. Rain on Friday delayed Race #1 for the Star Mazda Championship, after Team…
Read MoreTag: Scuncio
Star Mazda – Returning Drivers and a Spring Training Recap
The season-opener for the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear takes place this weekend on the Streets of St. Petersburg, but before we get to the race, there’s still some business to settle and shake out first. Drivers are still being added to the grid, and it looks like the field is shaping up quite nicely. Twenty-two drivers set times during the two-day Spring Training open test at Barber Motorsports Park including the two newest additions to the Juncos Racing stable, Connor Di Philippi and Martin Scuncio. Martin ran with…
Read MoreStar 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…
Read MoreStar 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…
Read MoreStar 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…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy Wrap-up: 2/6-2/12
Well, I mentioned it on the OpenPaddock.net Podcast Ep. 75, but I didn’t think things would happen so fast. We’ve had a lot of testing going on recently, and at this late date, testing isn’t solely for the cars, but is a genuine evaluation of driving talent. Think of these late pre-season tests as job interviews. With so much testing going on, it only stood to reason that we’d start hearing more and more driver announcements in the comming weeks. Well, we ended up with four just this week and…
Read MoreInside The Helmet – The Juncos Racing Quartet
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download In this episode of Inside the Helmet – Mazda Road to Indy Edition, we talk with the four drivers for Juncos Racing’s 2011 Star Mazda Championship team: Tatiana Calderon, João Horto, Martin Scuncio, and Gustavo Menezes. All four bring a unique perspective to the Juncos Racing team, and to racing in the Star Mazda Championship. They also tell us about the very unique pre-season testing program that Juncos Racing put them through this year, a three-week “boot camp” in which they went to…
Read MoreStar 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…
Read MoreStar 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…
Read More