Junior Open Wheel Talent

U.S. Rotax Max Grand Nationals- New Castle Motorsports Park

Rotax competitors from all over the United States battled it out last weekend at New Castle Motorsports Park, hoping to represent USA in La Conca, Italy during the Rotax Grand Finals this fall.  Eleven drivers earned the opportunity and will represent the USA in the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals on November 15-21, 2010.

2010 Team USA Members in Bold Print

• Senior Division: 1st- Stepanova Nekeel; 2nd- Sam Beasley; 3rd- Daniel Formal.
• DD2: 1st- Cody Hodgson; 2nd- Derek Wang; 3rd- Nathan Mauel
• DD2 Masters: 1st- Todd Ulmen; 2nd- Henry Malukas
• Masters: 1st- Eric Jones; 2nd- Sean Scott; 3rd- John Bonanno
• Junior: 1st- Andrew Palmer; 2nd- Alessandra Madrigal; 3rd- Ethan Ringel
• Mini Max: 1st- Jordan Perry; 2nd- Cole Glasson; 3rd- Dalton Sargeant
• Micro Max: 1st- Anthony Gangi; 2nd- Juan David Buitrago; 3rd- Justin Sirgany

Skip Barber National Championship- New Jersey Motorsports Park

It was a wild weekend for Skip Barber National competitors who completed Rounds Nine and Ten of the 2010 Championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park.  Two drivers earned their first-career National victories after post-race penalties were assessed.

Round Nine:  Felix Serralles earned his first win of 2010 by 0.004 seconds over championship leader Spencer Pigot.  Ashley Freiberg rounded out the top-three, earning the hard charger award for improving three positions in 15-laps.  Nick Andries set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:31.701.

Round Ten:  Freiberg earned her first-career Skip Barber National win on Sunday, while simultaneously earning her second-consecutive hard charger award from improving the most positions, and becoming the first female in history to win a Skip Barber National event.  She started the race sixth and ultimately crossed the line second behind Isaac Lyons.  However, after the race, Lyons was given a 25-second penalty for blocking, which relegated him to ninth overall.  Spencer Pigot finished second, earning his ninth podium in ten races.  Dennis Trebing was leading the final lap before contact sent him to seventh place.  Serralles grabbed the final podium spot.

Indy Lights:  Toronto

Firestone Indy Lights drivers spent last weekend North of the Border racing on the narrow streets of Toronto.  Two rookies claimed the top-two spots.

J.K. Vernay earned his fourth win of the 2010 season extending his championship lead to 68-points over Canadian James Hinchcliffe.  “Hinch” was running second for the majority of the race before making a slight error in Turn 3 — missing his braking point — and then being bumped off track in Turn 5.  Dan Clarke put together a career-best finish by crossing the stripe second 1.7469 seconds behind Vernay, who led the entire race.  Gustavo Yacaman also logged a career-best finish by finishing third.  His previous best was fourth at Milwaukee in May, 2009.

Stefan Wilson, who finished fifth, set the fastest lap of the race (65.8173 seconds) and earned hard charger honors for improving the most positions during the event.  Wilson started tenth and finished fifth after 50-laps.

After being away from the computer for a few days due to a mini-vacation, it’s time to catch up on all the racing news and results. Rather than put all the news into individual posts, which are already dated, I decided to just put everything in one spot via a ‘Linkage‘ post.

Skip Barber
Skip Barber National standout Connor De Phillippi won Round 7 by going from 3rd to 1st in the final lap.
Round 7: Complete Results

Skip Barber Karting Scholarship winner Court Vernon won his first Skip Barber National race over the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
Round 8: Complete Results

Formula BMW-Americas
Gabby Chaves won the first race of the weekend at Lime Rock Park in dominant fashion. The win moves the Colombian driver back into the points lead.
Round 8: Complete Results

Australian driver James Kovacic celebrated his 16th birthday in style by claiming his first Formula BMW victory in Race 2 at LRP. Not only did Kovacic win, he became the first driver to win from a spot other than pole position, so far this season. He started the race in 5th. Honorable mention should go to Alex Ellis who led most of the race only to see the victory slip away in the closing laps.
Round 9: Complete Results

F2000 Championship
Matthew Inge ran a solid race to take his second win of the season in the F2000 Championship, while racing at Summit Point Motorsports Park. Championship leader Chris Miller finished the race in second place. Alegra Motorsports driver Fabio Orslon continues to develop as he finished the race in 3rd.
Race 1: Complete Results

Tim Minor found his way to the top spot of the podium in the second race of the weekend at his home track (SPMP). Championship leader Chris Miller continued his renowned podium streak by finishing 2nd. Ben Searcy found his way to the podium after being DQ’d from a fifth place finish in Race 1—due to missing the minimum weight requirement by a mere 3lbs.
Race 2: Complete Results

You can read the F2000 Championship weekend notebook here>>.

Atlantic Championship
Simona De Silvestro made history this weekend by becoming the winningest female driver in the 36-year history of the Atlantic Championship. Simona claimed her fourth career Atlantic victory at Lime Rock Park. The previous record was held by Katherine Legge, who had 3 career Atlantic victories. John Edwards had a great run to finish 2nd after starting 5th. His performance earned him the hard charger award. Borja Garcia put in another solid performance to finish 3rd in Round 5. The result marked his second podium of the season.
Round 5- Complete Results

Formula 3 Euro Series
Jules Bianchi dominated the competition at Zandvoort this weekend for Rounds 7 & 8 of the 2009 championship. The 19-year-old driver has won four races this season and leads the championship by 17 points.

The Hard Charger of Round 7 was Atte Mustonen who improved 11 positions– 20th to 9th.
Round 7- Zandvoort Complete Results

The Hard Charger of Round 8 was Stefano Coletti who improved 12 positions– 24th to 12th.
Round 8- Zandvoort Complete Results

World Series by Renault
Bertrand Baguette dominated the weekend by winning both races at Le Mans. Baguette leads the championship by 19 points over Marcos Martinez (2nd) and James Walker (3rd).

The Hard Charger of Round 10 was Dani Clos who improved 10 positions–20th to 10th.
Round 10: Le Mans Complete Results

The Hard Charger of Round 11 was Edoardo Mortara, who improved 15 positions–21st to 6th. Honorable mention should go to Miguel Molina who improved 8 positions–10th to 2nd.
Round 11: Le Mans Complete Results

Star Mazda
Peter Dempsey completed the perfect Friday at Iowa Speedway by leading both practice sessions, qualifying on pole, and winning the 100-lap race under the lights. The win moves him into the championship lead. Conor Daly had an excellent run to finish 2nd after starting 8th. Formula BMW graduate, David Ostella had his best finish of the year by rounding out the top-three.

The hard charger of the event was Michael Furfari who drove an incredible race. The 16-year-old race driver improved 13 positions to cross the stripe in 8th after starting 21st. This is Furfari’s second hard charger nomination in as many race events.

Star Mazda
Iowa Speedway
Round 7- Complete Results
_________

Indy Lights
Sebastian Saavedra drove a near perfect race north of the border as the Indy Lights made their way around the streets of Toronto, Canada. Saavedra is now sitting in second place in the overall championship with 2 victories and 5 top-five finishes. Championship leader, J.R. Hildebrand added another solid finish to his resume by crossing the stripe second. Toronto native, James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top-three. This is Hinchcliffe’s fourth podium finish in 2009.

The hard charger of the race was Daniel Herrington, who drove from 18th on the grid to finish 9th.

Indy Lights
Grand Prix of Toronto
Complete Results
_________

I’m looking at some new options for race coverage in 2009. Obviously there are plenty of sources out there offering race results, most of which have better resources available than I do, and most of the series have their own live timing available as well. Your typical Internet race report provides you with the winner (rightly so), but you don’t always get the details of who had a great weekend. So, in an effort to separate the coverage at Junior Open Wheel Talent from that of several other racing websites and to help promote drivers showing improvement, I’ve decided to try a weekly “hard charger” section featuring the driver/s who advanced the most positions over the race weekend.

We will kick off this segment with the “hard-charger” or most improved drivers from Sebring. I sifted through these results fairly quickly, so feel free to correct me if I missed something, but here are the numbers I came up with….

Most Improved Driver/s: (Positions Improved in Parenthesis)

Skip Barber National
Race 1: Mike Vincec (5), Sage Karam (5)
–Race Winner: Connor De Phillippi
Race 2: Felipe Polehtto (8), Mike Vincec (8)
– Race Winner: Connor De Phillippi

Formula BMW
Race 1: Joao Victor Horto (4) — Race Winner: Gabriel Chaves
Race 2: Gianmarco Raimondo (5) — Race Winner: Gabriel Chaves

Star Mazda
Conor Daly (13) **Hard Charger of the Week**
– Race Winner: Adam Christodoulou

Atlantic Championship
James Winslow (5) — Race Winner: John Edwards

I was out of town over the weekend and was unable to follow each race event in detail, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to do another “one stop results” post. I apologize for the lateness, but better late than never. This was one of the best junior formula weekends in North America for 2008…..Skip Barber, Formula BMW, Star Mazda and the Atlantic Championship were all racing at the world famous Road America. Without further ado, here are your “one stop”weekend results….

Road America: August 7-10

Skip Barber National
Race 1 Round 9
Race 2 Round 10

Formula BMW-Americas
Race 1 Round 10
Race 2 Round 11
Race 3 Round 12

Star Mazda
Race 1 Round 6

Atlantic Championship
Race 1 Round 6
Race 2 Round 7

The Indy Lights Series was racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course over the weekend. Race 1 was relatively uneventful, at least in comparison to what would follow. Matos ran a good clean race taking the race win. A few drivers who had been previously struggling this season, managed a top five finish.

Race 2 was a whole different story. The day started with a rain delay, however due to time constraints the drivers hit a full wet track anyway (for a timed race). To make a long story short, just about every driver in the field spun or went off course at least once during the race. The big surprise of the weekend was yet to come though….. Jonny Reid, Indy Lights newcomer, was dominating the race only to pull into the pits by mistake just prior to taking the checkered flag. A truly disheartening conclusion for Reid. Despite the disappointing ending, after his performance…. I will say this isn’t the last we will see of him.

In Skip Barber news, Josef Newgarden stands atop the points standings in the Skip Barber National Championship after Round 8. Newgarden once again demonstrated his speed by taking the pole position in both qualifying sessions over the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

Conor Daly wasn’t about to give in though, and took the victory in Round 7. Daly’s exponential amount of tests (in various cars) over the last month couldn’t have hurt his performance. Newgarden bounced back on Sunday and reclaimed the top spot at the conclusion of the weekend’s activities. The top three contenders in the championship are separated by a mere 5 points after 8 rounds. Click here for the full report.

I haven’t done a linkage post for a few weeks, so I decided this would be a good time with four of our featured series running over the weekend. So for those of you looking to get all your results and updates in one spot…. here you go.

In F2000 Championship news…..On Saturday, Anders Krohn continued his winning ways with a victory in the F2000 Championship Race 7.
Jonny Baker overcame wet conditions in qualifying to take the top spot and the victory in the F2000 Championship Race 8.

The Stars of Karting series made it’s stop at one of my favorite karting tracks, USA International Raceway, in Shawano, WI. Gary Carlton and Mike Vincec must have learned a few new tricks while racing overseas as they claimed the top two spots in both ICC races. Ekartingnews has a nice race report for all classes.

The Formula BMW-Americas drivers were busy this weekend as well, running at Lime Rock Park. Daniel Juncadella took the win in FBMW Americas Round #8 driving for the Euro Junior Team. Alexander Rossi, driving for EuroInternational, continued his dominance by taking the top spot in the FBMW-Americas Round #9.

Matt Jaskol took his first Super Late title in the NASCAR All-American Series after passing young driver Bear Rzesnowiecky with five laps remaining. Apparently Jaskol used to coach Bear in go karts.

This is a busy weekend with both the Formula BMW and the Atlantic Championship drivers running at Laguna Seca for the Monterey Festival of Speed. The Star Mazda drivers are also jumping back into action at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, for their second event of the season. I will be out of town for part of the day Saturday, but will do my best to keep you updated with full results. A few Stars of Karting drivers are running in the Mazda MX-5 Cup and the Jetta TDI Cup races this weekend in Mosport as well.

Atlantic Championship: Laguna Seca
Qualifying 1: 5/16
1. James Hinchcliffe 1:17.541
2. Kevin Lacroix 1:17.710
3. Markus Niemela 1:17.830
4. Junior Strous 1:17.910
5. Andreas Wirth |1:17.941
6. David Garza 1:17.983
7. Jonathan Summerton 1:18.014
8. Jonathan Bomarito 1:18.048
9. Daniel Morad 1:18.256
10. Greg Mansell 1:18.428
11. Dane Cameron 1:18.431
12. Dominick Muermans 1:18.573
13. Douglas Soares 1:18.666
14. Simona De Silvestro 1:18.828
15. Henri Karjalainen 1:19.342
16. Leo Mansell 1:19.431
17. Frankie Muniz 1:19.505
18. Luis Schiavo 1:20.027
19. Christopher Zoechling 1:20.693
21. Carl Skerlong No Time

Atlantic Championship
Qualifying 2: 5/17
1. James Hinchcliffe 1:16.189
2. Carl Skerlong 1:16.356
3. Kevin Lacroix 1:16.364
4. Junior Strous 1:16.447
5. Markus Niemela 1:16.633
6. Greg Mansell 1:16.660
7. Jonathan Bomarito 1:16.716
8. Daniel Morad 1:16.725
9. Jonathan Summerton 1:16.801
10. Dane Cameron 1:16.888
11. Dominick Muermans 1:16.912
12. David Garza 1:16.970
13. Andreas Wirth 1:17.180
14. Simona De Silvestro 1:17.239
15. Henri Karjalainen 1:17.596
16. Leo Mansell 1:17.650
17. Luis Schiavo 1:17.948
18. Frankie Muniz 1:18.240
19. Christopher Zoechling 1:18.515
20. Douglas Soares No-time

Atlantic Championship: Race 5/18
1. James Hinchcliffe
2. Carl Skerlong
3. Junior Strous
4. Markus Niemela
5. Dominick Muermans
6. Jonathan Summerton
7. David Garza
8. Andreas Wirth
9. Daniel Morad
10. Simona De Silvestro
11. Leo Mansell
12. Christopher Zoechling
13. Frankie Muniz
14. Douglas Soares
15. Kevin Lacroix
16. Henri Karjalainen
17. Dane Cameron
18. Luis Schiavo
19. Jonathon Bomarito
20. Greg Mansell

FBMW-Americas: Laguna Seca
Qualifying: 5/17
1. Alexander Rossi 1:27.678
2. Ricardo Favoretto 1:27.712
3. Gianmarco Raimondo 1:27.898
4. David Ostella 1:28.310
5. Alexandre Ruiz 1:28.364
6. Maxime Pelletier 1:28.491
7. Mikael Grenier 1:28.742
8. Jorge Goncalvez 1:29.133
9. Giancarlo Vilarinho 1:29.188
10. Velibor Jovanovic 1:31.503

FBMW Race: 5/17
Laguna Seca
1. Gianmarco Raimondo
2. Ricardo Favoretto +2.970
3. Mikael Grenier +7.958
4. Maxime Pelletier +13.238
5. Alexandre Ruiz +16.814
6. Jorge Goncalvez +17.210
7. David Ostella +22.935
8. Giancarlo Vilarinho +44.324
9. Velibor Jovanovic 1 Lap
10. Alexander Rossi +3 Laps (Mechanical)

FBMW Qualifying: 5/18
1. Ricardo Favoretto 1:26.987
2. Gianmarco Raimondo 1:27.287
3. Alexander Rossi 1:27.308
4. Alexandre Ruiz 1:27.478
5. Giancarlo Vilarinho 1:27.698
6. David Ostella 1:27.917
7. Mikael Grenier 1:28.156
8. Maxime Pelletier 1:28.381
9. Jorge Goncalvez 1:28.519
10. Velibor Jovanovic 1:31.047

FBMW Race: 5/18
Laguna Seca
1. Gianmarco Raimondo
2. Alexander Rossi
3. Maxime Pelletier
4. Alexandre Ruiz
5. Giancarlo Vilarinho
6. Jorge Goncalvez
7. Velibor Jovanovic
8. Mikael Grenier
9. David Ostella
10. Ricardo Favoretto

Star Mazda: Miller Motorsports Park
Qualifying: 5/17
1. John Edwards 1:43.650
2. Joel Miller 1:44.341
3. Ernesto Otero 1:44.799
4. Tom Gladdis 1:44.887
5. Charles Hall 1:44.996
6. Peter Dempsey 1:45.020
7. Taylor Hacquard 1:45.431
8. Eric Freiberg 1:45.483
9. Patrick O’Neil 1:45.576
10. Jonny Baker 1:45.700
11. Billy Goshen 1:45.805
12. Rick Rosin 1:45.965
13. Mike Hill 1:46.047
14. Ciao Lara 1:46.066
15. Chuck Hulse 1:46.068
16. Michael Guasch 1:46.211
17. Scott Rettich 1:46.315
18. Phil Fogg Jr. 1:46.411
19. J.C. Kester 1:46.860
20. Gerry Kraut 1:46.893
21. Kristy Kester 1:47.074
22. Chris Cumming 1:47.285
23. Stan Kohls 1:47.888
24. Michele Bumgarner 1:47.982
25. David House 1:48.744
26. J.W. Roberts 1:48.768
27. Richard Zoeber 1:49.275
28. Cody Jolly 2:07.468
29. Alex Ardoin 5:37.022

Star Mazda Race: Miller Motorsports Park
1. John Edwards
2. Charles Hall +14.514
3. Joel Miller +22.136
4. Peter Dempsey +26.242
5. Tom Gladdis +26.535
6. Taylor Hacquard +28.971
7. Eric Freiberg +37.808
8. Billy Goshen +41.360
9. Mike Hill +43.087
10. Alex Ardoin +50.287
11. Phil Fogg Jr. +54.869
12. Jonny Baker +55.123
13. Ernesto Otero +25.374
14. Rick Rosin +1:00.804
15. Chris Cumming +1:01.667
16. Patrick O’Neil +1:08.158
17. Gerry Kraut +1:11.665
18. Kristy Kester +1:16.038
19. J.W. Roberts +1:37.765
20. Michele Bumgarner +1:45.336
21. Stan Kohls +1 Lap
22. Richard Zober +1 Lap
23. David House +1 Lap
24. Scott Rettich +4 Laps
25. J.C. Kester +4 Laps
26. Chuck Hulse +7 Laps
27. Cody Jolly +22 Laps
28. Ciao Lara +22 Laps
29. Michael Guasch +22 Laps

Jetta TDI Cup: Mosport
Mazda MX-5 Cup: Mosport
I’ve had some requests to touch on the Jetta TDI Cup and the Mazda MX-5 Cup this weekend as a few kart drivers are participating in the two series. To those who follow the Stars of Karting series, here are a few familiar names in the mix.

Qualifying TDI Cup: 5/17
7. David Jurca
22. Chris Kuenning
29. Timmy Megenbier

Race TDI Cup: 5/18
1. David Jurca (Congratulations to David Jurca, one of JOWT’s Top Prospect’s)
14. Timmy Megenbier
15. Chris Kuenning

Qualifying: MX-5 Cup 5/18
11. Steve Welk 1:37.023
22. Brett Smrz (no time~strange considering Smrz was quickest in combined practice)

Race: MX-5 Cup 5/18
3. Brett Smrz 70.911
6. Steve welk 70.097