Alan McCallum earned back-to-back wins at Infineon Raceway over the weekend in the Formula Mazda Division of the Formula Car Challenge.
(Photo: Ryan – Junior Open Wheel Talent)
The Formula Car Challenge Series wrapped up a doubleheader weekend yesterday afternoon following the IndyCar Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway. Thirty-five cars took to the track for Sunday evening’s Race 2.
In the Pro Formula Mazda (PFM) Division, Dane Cameron dominated the field for the second consecutive day driving to victory ahead of San Rafael driver Patrick O’Neill. O’Neill was very impressive this weekend. He didn’t quite have the pace of Cameron, but he remained close throughout the event showcasing his overall speed. F2000 Championship front-runner Cole Morgan rounded out the top-three for his second podium finish of the weekend. Morgan hadn’t been in a Formula Mazda car since the 2007 season when he ran three races in the Star Mazda Championship.
The Standard Formula Mazda (FM) Division offered quite a bit more action, including a last lap pass for the lead by Alan McCallum to sweep the weekend. McCallum, who started from pole, was passed early in the race by Lucas Barnett. The two ran nose-to-tail for the bulk of the race. On the white flag lap McCallum drove his No. 19 car deep into Turn 7, taking over the point. Barnett remained in tow and tried to retake the lead coming off Turn 12 but fell just short.
I was posting live updates from the media center during the event so make sure to check out my Twitter updates – from 8.22.2010 – for a more detailed recap.
Dane Cameron
(Photo: Ryan – JuniorOpenWheelTalent.com)
Dane Cameron hasn’t raced a formula car since 2008. He’s been spending his time in the fender-ranks driving both a Grand-Am GT and Daytona Prototype car.
Clearly, his time away from open-wheel racing hasn’t had any effect on his ability to pilot a formula car. He dominated a 35-car field today at Infineon Raceway in the first of two Formula Car Challenge events this weekend. Patrick O’Neill made a solid run through the field after starting in the back due to a DQ in qualifying yesterday. He finished second overall. Cole Morgan, who is a regular in the F2000 Championship, followed suit driving from 11th to 3rd in the 14-lap event.
“It’s been a couple years,” said Cameron, referring to his formula car endeavors. “Doing the sports car stuff, I don’t always get to start a race, so I had to remember how to do a rolling start,” he continued with a smile. “It’s good fun to drive a formula car, there is nothing that can beat what these things can do.”
Michael Guasch finished fourth with Paul LaHaye rounding out the top-five in the Pro Formula Mazda division.
In the standard Formula Mazda division Alan McCallum, of Houston, TX., found his way to victory lane lapping nearly a full second faster than his nearest competitor. Doug Peterson and Joe Colasacco rounded out the podium.
The first qualifying session for the Formula Car Challenge Series took place earlier today at Infineon Raceway. A total of 35 cars took to the track for the half-hour session on the famed Northern California road course. I put together a brief slideshow of the session below. Enjoy.
I’m all checked into the media center (view pictured on right), getting set for this weekend’s festivities. I will be on hand all weekend covering both the Formula Car Challenge Series and the Indy Lights race.
I stopped by the track yesterday and toured the World Speed Motorsports shop. Very impressive. Mark Milazzo, Operations Manager with WSM, gave me the full tour (he even showed me the top-secret room where they develop all kinds of crazy motorized vehicles). Unfortunately, I promised not to divulge any information on their top-secret projects.
In addition to the tour, I had a chance to check out the new FormulaSPEED 2.0 car during its unveiling. The car looks good and should offer drivers an affordable car without sacrificing performance.
Spoke to Joel Miller briefly and he is extremely excited for this weekend. He will be participating in his second career Indy Lights race after running at Long Beach earlier this season.
Track activities are limited today, with Historic Grand Prix practice, Formula Car Challenge practice, and IndyCar practice. The Indy Lights’ drivers will not see the track until tomorrow morning. Their first on-track practice session is scheduled for 8-8:45 a.m. Saturday.
It’s time to go make a few laps through the paddock. Watch for additional updates throughout the weekend.
Good morning folks. I’m just getting set to depart for Sonoma, Calif. in preparation for this weekend’s Indy Lights and Formula Car Challenge events. Watch for updates throughout the weekend, from the Northern California road-course, here on Junior Open Wheel Talent.
The 2010 MazdaSPEED Development Ladder Awards were announced earlier this week.
A Mazda-powered club racer will be awarded a ride in the 2011 Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup.
The 2010 Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup champion will be awarded a ride in a MAZDASPEED3 in the 2011 Continental Tire Challenge Series.
Two karting champions will be awarded rides in the 2011 BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Championship, after a multi-day shootout at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in December.
The 2010 Skip Barber National champion will be awarded a ride in the 2011 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.
The 2010 USF2000 champion will be awarded a ride in the 2011 Star Mazda Championship. Introduced in 2010, the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda is the newest series within the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Ladder. Both the Star Mazda and USF2000 Championships also are a part of the Road to Indy.
The 2010 Star Mazda champion will be awarded a full-season ride in a Mazda RX-8 in the 2011 Grand-Am GT Championship.
The awards are great, it’s just unfortunate that a driver will be brought all the way up through the open-wheel ranks and then be put in a tin-top to compete in the Grand-Am GT Championship. Not that there is anything wrong with that award, it would be fantastic if your goal is to race in the Grand-Am Series, but for this group of kids, that’s rarely the case. Most, if not all, have aspirations of racing an open-wheel car full-time in a top-tier series. I assumed the RX-8 ride would be the final prize this season, as it was last year, but I was hoping they would leave the option open for drivers to take the funding elsewhere.
It’s likely the folks with the “Road to Indy” and the “MazdaSPEED Development Ladder” will be working together this off-season to find a “fix” for the top-rung. It would be great to see the Star Mazda champion awarded a full-time Indy Lights ride.
Plus, as I mentioned before, I believe the funding should be spread between the top-two or top-three drivers in each series.
Three years ago, following a severe crash in a Formula Renault 2.0 car, Alfonso “Picho” Toledano was faced with the prospect of losing both his legs. He was told that amputation was imminent and he would never race again. Difficult words for anyone to grasp, but even more difficult for a 17-year-old kid whose dream – for the past 13 years – was to become a professional racecar driver. The outlook was so disheartening and dreadful that Toledano refused to accept it.
The accident happened in 2007, at the Ponce Circuit in Puerto Rico. Toledano came through a blind corner and lost his brakes before impacting another car which had come to a halt due to a previous incident. Both of Toledano’s legs sustained multiple fractures in the crash. While laying in a Puerto Rican hospital bed, it was suggested, by the FIA, that he be flown to Indianapolis, Indiana for a comprehensive examination by OrthoIndy. Toledano wasn’t about to argue. The doctors in Indianapolis – who had experience working with the IRL – were a bit more familiar with this type of injury and suggested immediate surgery. Not that there was any other option at that point, but they remained relatively sanguine about saving his legs. The first surgery, on his right leg, lasted eight hours. The very next week, he underwent surgery on his left leg. All together he had 18 surgeries.
Last week, Brendon Hartley joined the long list of talented drivers dropped by the Red Bull junior program. The 20-year-old Kiwi was competing in his second year of Formula Renault 3.5, and had failed to score a victory in 24 starts. Personally, I think Red Bull jumped the gun a little as his lack of race wins fails to tell the whole story.
Hartley, who won the 2007 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, finished third in the ultra-competitive British F3-International Series in 2008 — logging five race wins and 11 podiums. In 2009, he was thrown into one of the most hectic schedules possible, running in both the World Series by Renault and the Formula 3 Euro Series, while also balancing a testing role for F1′s Scuderia Toro Rosso. Talk about diversity. The seat time was excellent, but it’s hard to produce results when you are spread so thin. This year, he completed 11 races in the World Series by Renault before being dropped. During that time he logged eight top-10 finishes and three top-five finishes with a best result of 2nd. He also set the fastest lap of the race at both Spa and Monte Carlo. There’s no question that his results this year, while impressive, were far from stellar. Which is why Red Bull made the decision they did. Obviously, he knew his support from the energy-drink giant was in jeopardy, which couldn’t have helped his results. I have no problem with Red Bull’s decision, but I think they should have let him finish out the season.
Jean-Eric Vergne, 20, who is leading the British F3 Championship, will replace Hartley at Tech 1. Vergne should be able to jump right into the new role as he has already completed four races with the team in the GP3 series. Speaking of Vergne, it’s worth noting that he just swept both British F3-International rounds this weekend at Spa bumping his win total to eight races.
In the karting world, 15-year-old Jake Dennis of Britain won the opening round of the CIK-FIA U18 Championship held at “Prokart Raceland” in Wackersdorf. The next event will be held August 27-29 in Alcaniz, Spain.
Also in international karting — big news here in the United States — the WSK World Series will be making their North American stop this weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park. If you’re not counting the SKUSA SuperNationals (which technically isn’t a world event despite the international attendance), this is the first time in twelve years that an “world” event has been held on American soil. The Formula C World Championships were held in Charlotte in 1998. Gary Carlton will be looking for his first international race win in KZ2 and Ron White – who won an international event at Sarno in 2004 – will make his return to international competition. Both drivers should be considered favorites to win this weekend, despite the high-level of competition. There will be 19 North American’s competing in the event.
Keenan Harris plans to return to the BGR/Team Grote camp this weekend for Rounds 7-8 of the 2010 Ontario Formula Ford Championship. Harris was forced to sit out the bulk of the season with a broken collar bone, following a cycling accident earlier in the year. Harris plans to graduate to the F2000 Championship in 2011.
Yesterday, Mark Boudreau of F1Prospects.com posted a nice interview with Juncos Racing Team Owner Ricardo Juncos. The interview, as a whole, is a very good read. The part that really stands out — at least to me — is this statement from Ricardo:
In my opinion, it’s crazy that the winner of the championship gets $750,000 in sponsorship, but the second place driver gets nothing. Zero. So that hurts. If they could give $600,000 in sponsorship for first place and $200,000 for second place, Peter Dempsey would be racing this year and not sitting on the sidelines. That’s a big question that needs to be answered.
He brings up a good point. Not that there is anything wrong with the funding that Mazda is putting out… it’s great!… nobody is complaining. But, when you actually stop and think about it, it really only makes sense to spread the wealth a little more and help more than one driver. The champion should get the bulk of the funding, but it wouldn’t hurt to help out, say the top-three drivers in order to keep some of the true-talents behind-the-wheel. Thoughts?
A special thank you to everyone who has donated. I plan to use my 2010 donations as a travel fund to provide more live coverage. Every little bit helps.
