The Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear begins its 2012 season on the Streets of St. Petersburg this weekend, and it looks like they will start with a pretty healthy grid. While not the 30+ cars they used to have, its still nice to see that 21 cars will take laps in anger around the hybrid airport/street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida for two races this Saturday and Sunday.
Juncos Racing looks to be very strong this season with the addition of Connor Di Philippi and the resigning of Martin Scuncio. Last year, Team Pelfrey showed that they were a legitimate threat for the championship even in their inaugural season, and this year they return with 2011 USF2000 Champion Petri Suvanto, Star Mazda sophomore Gustavo Menezes, and Jack Hawksworth. Andretti Autosport’s Sage Karam is also poised for a strong challenge in his sophomore year in the series. We should see a great three-way fight between these teams.
I’d like to prognosticate and try to make a guess at the podium, but the above teams are really well matched. This first race will be a bit of a crapshoot. If I had to pick, I think you’ll see the street circuits like St. Pete favor Connor Di Philippi. He was the winner of last year’s two races at St. Petersburg and was strong all year on the street circuit also pulling out a win at Circuit Trois-Rivières. Suvanto, although very quick in testing, may take a race or two to get comfortable with the Star Mazda machine in racing situations. Sage Karam will challenge for a podium position, but he’ll have to take advantage of every opportunity to wrest the race lead away from Connor or Petri. Of course, come raceday, all my forecasting could amount to so much gator dung, especially if it rains. If it is a wet track, look for Zach Veach to come on strong! The young driver is an absolute rainmeister, and with a 20% chance of rain on Saturday and a 60% chance on Sunday, a win for Veach is certainly a real possibility. Things should be interesting this weekend!
Star Mazda On-Track Schedule
Thursday, March 22
6:10-6:40 Practice Session #1
Friday, March 23
11:05-11:35 Practice Session #2
4:40-5:10 Qualifying
Saturday, March 24
1:00-1:40 Race#1
Sunday, March 25
10:05-10:45 Race#2
Follow Live Timing-and-Scoring at http://www.starmazda.com/timing/
Star Mazda Entry List for St. Petersburg
| Car No. | Driver | Hometown | Team | Sponsor |
| 2 | Connor De Phillippi | San Clemente, CA | Juncos Racing | ModSpace Racing / One24 |
| 9 | Juan Piedrahita | Mexico City, Mexico | JDC Motorsports | Petrosur / GFK Motors |
| 10 | Jérimy Daniel | Châteauguay, Quebec | The Racing Company | FixAuto / Sherwin-Williams |
| 15 | Bruno Palli | Maracay, Venezuela | Juncos Racing | Team Viso Venezuela |
| 19 | Gabby Chaves | Bogotá, Colombia | JDC Motorsports | OMP |
| 21 | Camilo Schmidt | Mérida, Venezuela | #21 Linares Racing | |
| 22 | Martin Scuncio | Bahia Blanca, Argentina | Juncos Racing | |
| 23 | Walt Bowlin | Tarpon Springs, Florida | AIM Autosport | Tampa Bay Jaw Surgery |
| 38 | Dom Bastien | West Palm Beach, FL | ||
| 53 | Andrés Méndez | Bogotá, Colombia | Team GDT | GrupoKriterion.com / DataFile.com.co |
| 57 | Diego Ferreira | Maracay, Venezuela | Juncos Racing | Team Viso Venezuela |
| 65 | Cory Lewis | Nazareth, PA | Team GDT | Monticello Motor Club / Bell Helmets / GDT |
| 66 | Zack Meyer | Toronto, Canada | AIM Autosport | Partners III |
| 72 | Larry Pegram | Baltimore, OH | AIM Autosport | Foremost Insurance |
| 77 | Zach Veach | Stockdale, Ohio | Andretti Autosport | Zakosi Data Backup / ADS IT Solutions |
| 81 | Petri Suvanto | Nurmo, Finland | Team Pelfrey Mazda | Mazda Road to Indy (>) |
| 82 | Jack Hawksworth | West Yorkshire, England | Team Pelfrey | TORGOEN Swiss Watches / EXA Networks |
| 83 | Gustavo Menezes | Coto de Caza, California | Team Pelfrey | TrueCar.com |
| 88 | Sage Karam | Nazareth, PA | Andretti Autosport | Comfort Revolution |
| 91 | Ashley Freiberg | Homer Glen, IL | JDC Motorsports | TRUECar.com |
| 99 | Stefan Rzadainski | Edmonton, Canada | JDC Motorsports | PoweredbyAlberta.com |
