Star Mazda – Chavez On Pole at Road Atlanta

The final round of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear takes place this afternoon at the Road Atlanta circuit outside of Braselton, GA. Jack Hawksworth, pilot for Team Pelfrey and 2012 champion, has stepped out of the car this week and is coaching Ryan Tveter who is taking his place in the #82. Jack has dominated the season, but there’s been one driver who has been consistently on his heels and on the podium, Gabby Chavez. Gabby drives the #19 CLARO/Marca Colombia/Tecpro Mazda car for JDC MotorSport and sits…

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Star Mazda – Hawksworth All But Champion

As with the two USF2000 races this past weekend on the Streets of Baltimore, the two championship contenders in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, Andretti Autosport’s Sage Karam, and Team Pelfrey’s Jack Hawksworth each took a victory, but a DNF by Karam would allow Hawksworth to stretch his lead. With three more races to go, it’s still a battle, but Hawksworth is definitely the favourite. Four drivers are still in contention, mathematically, but the two practical contenders are Jack and Sage. Star Mazda Race #1 Qualifying for Race…

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Star Mazda – Beginning the Canadian Swing

The IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights, and Star Mazda Championship began their three-race Canadian stint on the streets of Toronto this weekend. Sage Karam was fastest during Friday practice with a 1:08.793 and nearly eclipsed Dane Cameron’s 1:08.755 track record, falling a mere 0.038 sec short. Sage’s hope for Canada is to close the gap on the championship leaders riding the momentum of his great results on the two ovals races at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis and the Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA. “The track picked up a…

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Star Mazda – New Faces on the Podium at Barber

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…

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Mazda 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…

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Star Mazda – 2010 Stand-out Connor De Phillippi Joins Team Pelfrey for 2011

Connor De Phillipi who contested the 2010 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear with JDC MotorSports will be joining Nick Andries at the fledgling squad Team Pelfrey. Perhaps “fledgling” isn’t as appropriate as “repatriated” since Pelfrey has certainly been a competitor in Indy Car racing in years past at various levels. Connor won Rookie of the Year honors in 2010 finishing the season third in championship points, scoring eleven top-ten finishes, three podiums, and winning the season finale at Road Atlanta from pole. “I’m so glad to be a part…

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