Star Mazda – Iowa Preview: Return of the Daly Show

This weekend, the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear contests the fifth round, the second on an oval, of their season at the Iowa Speedway. They will be there along with every other part of the Road2Indy program and the IZOD IndyCar Series. It should make for a fantastic weekend of open-wheel racing.


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The last race for Star Mazda was at the O’Reilly Raceway Park where they shared the Night Before the 500 with the US F2000 National Championship and the USAC Midgets. Like with US F2000, car count is not what the series or fans would like. Only 13 cars gridded up for the race at ORP which is significantly fewer than the typical high-20s car counts from last season. Regardless of the car count, the racing action was still exciting. Conor Daly, son of the famous Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Derek Daly, absolutely dominated the field, but the action back through the pack was very thrilling. Tristan Vautier and Anders Krohn had to start from the back and it was fantastic watching the two slice and dice their way up through the field. Daly’s victory at ORP was his third of the season, placing third only the first race at Sebring. Those three wins places Daly in a strong position in the Championship thus far as he leads Mikael Grenier by 29 points headed into Iowa.

Pos Driver Sebring St Petersburg Mazda Raceway O’Reilly Raceway Pts
1 Conor Daly 37 45 45 44 171
2 Mikael Grenier 34 30 37 41 142
3 Anders Krohn 33 34 40 32 139
4 Joao Horto 30 40 21 37 128
5 Tristan Vautier 44 27 23 30 124
6 Connor De Phillipp 29 32 34 29 124
7 Caio Lara 26 37 30 27 120
8 Rusty Mitchell 25 26 28 34 113
9 Jorge Goncalvez 40 19 25 26 110
10 David Ostella 23 29 20 28 100
Chris Miller 27 21 29 23 100
12 Tatiana Calderon 16 17 27 25 85
13 Juan Piedrahita 17 25 32 0 74
14 JW Roberts 19 20 24 0 63
15 Carlos Linares 22 15 0 24 61
16 Michael Furfari 28 24 0 0 52
17 Gerry Kraut 24 0 26 0 50
18 Patrick O’Neill 0 22 22 0 44
19 Richard Kent 14 28 0 0 42
20 Court Vernon 15 23 0 0 38
Carlos Conde 20 18 0 0 38
22 Hayden Duerson 18 16 0 0 34
23 Dom Bastien 21 0 0 0 21

Given how strong Daly tested and raced on the 5/8-mile oval at ORP, I really can’t see anyone capable of challenging him at the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway. However, keep in mind that just because the leader jumps ahead of the field, there’s still a dozen or so other drivers racing for position. Don’t just keep your eyes on the leader, be sure to take in and enjoy all of the mid-back action.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the Firestone Indy Lights series as they head to the Iowa Speedway.

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