Junior Open Wheel Talent

After a record nine pole positions and a record-tying seven wins in 2010, American Conor Daly has won the overall Star Mazda Championship during the penultimate stop at Mosport International Raceway.  The Series will head to Road Atlanta, October 1, for the final event of the year.

Jorge Goncalvez finished runner-up, trailing Daly for the majority of the race.  Lap traffic allowed Connor De Phillippi to catch the front two and briefly take second from Goncalvez on Lap 29, but the Venezuelan driver was able to re-take the spot on the final lap following a restart. Ultimately, De Phillippi finished third after making a handful of nice passes to move up from his sixth place starting position.

Farther back in the field, Rusty Mitchell put together an impressive drive.  The Texan qualified seventh but “flat spotted” his tires and chose to replace them heading into the race.  His decision relegated him to the back of the field for today’s start.  From nineteenth on the grid, Mitchell carved his way through the pack to finish ninth.

The race featured one caution when Series’ newcomer Mikhail Goikhberg lost his car on the exit of Turn 1, impacting the tire barriers.  For a lap-by-lap recap of things, check out my Twitter page.

Complete results after the jump.

[Continue Reading...]

Here’s a great onboard shot from Tatiana Calderon’s Star Mazda car prior to impacting Nick Andries in Turn 5 at Road America.  Both drivers were battling lock-up on entry into the corner before Calderon’s right front got into the side of Andries’ car.  The tire contact sent Nick into a barrel roll while exiting the corner.

Fortunately, Andries was not injured in the accident.

Footage courtesy of Juncos Racing and Norwell9 Productions:

After being out of a race car for 16-months, Dillon Battistini is set to make his return this weekend at Chicagoland in the No. 35 Team PBIR Indy Lights car.

Battistini, 32, finished sixth overall in the 2008 Indy Lights drivers’ championship.  He completed the season with four wins, all on ovals, while driving for Panther Racing.  His last race was at Kansas in April 2009 – he finished 15th.

The Englishman hopes to make a full-time return to racing in 2011.

Just a quick injury update on Simon Trummer and James Jakes of the GP3 Series.  Both drivers were injured during the Hockenheim stop in July.

Trummer, who suffered one broken and three fractured vertebrae in his back, will return this weekend for the race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Jakes, who fractured his right wrist and suffered ligament damage in a separate incident, will not return this weekend.  The surgeries went well, according to inside sources, but the ligaments in his right arm need additional time to heal.  At this time, Jakes has very little strength in his right hand. He hopes to be back in the car for the final weekend of competition at Monza September 10-12, 2010.

The Formula 3 Euro Series is looking to implement a few cost-saving measures for the 2011 season and beyond.  Here is a quick look at what they have planned for next year.

Per their website:

Three races per event are planned for the future.

The new calendar of the Formula 3 Euro Series with ten race weekends will be published after the Formula 1 and DTM calendars for 2011 have been announced.

The majority of the ten race weekends that are planned will take place at DTM events. Moreover, races at other Formula 1 test and race tracks like Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone and/or Le Castellet are planned.

Similarly to 2010, there will be 16 days of official testing: 2×2 days prior to the season, 1×2 days halfway through the season and 10×1 test day close to the race events. Additionally, the amount of private test days per driver will be extended to six. All in all, this equals 22 opportunities of Formula 3 Euro Series testing.

For the 2011 season, series’ partner KUMHO will develop a new control tyre in order to guarantee equal chances for potential new entrants.

The successful TV marketing will be developed further in order to generate even more extensive coverage in free-to-air television in the target markets (home countries of the drivers and the teams).

The most successful drivers get contact opportunities to Formula 1 teams like Red Bull Racing and Mercedes GP. A concrete programme is currently being developed and will include, among others, a Formula 1 simulator test.

The best-placed Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz driver will receive a DTM test drive with Audi and Mercedes-Benz respectively.

The Formula 3 Euro Series champion will be invited by Renault Sport to participate in a Formula Renault 3.5 test free of charge.

A system with prize money will be used as before.

Further measures to cut costs are being worked on.

To optimize cost-efficiency, the following decisions were made:

Engines and exhaust systems remain at their current level. Any further development is prohibited.

The number of team personnel will be reduced to four people per car.

There will be no limit anymore for the number of cars entered per team.

Following Sunday’s Carneros 100, the top-three finishers (J.K. Vernay, Charlie Kimball, and James Hinchcliffe) met in the media center for their post race press conference.

During the conference a member of the media asked Kimball and Hinchcliffe if they will spend the week trying to scare Vernay as they prepare for the upcoming oval race at Chicagoland.  I’ve transcribed the humor below…

James Hinchcliffe: Absolutely!

Charlie Kimball:  Are you kidding, I mean there is nothing harder than Chicago!

James Hinchcliffe: Chicago is the tax I pay for being a race car driver.

Charlie Kimball:  It’s not even fun really.  [Turning to look at Vernay] … Oh, you’ve not been there?

James Hinchcliffe: It’s like playing Russian Roulette with five bullets.

Charlie Kimball:  Yeah, what he said. [referring to Hinch's roulette comment]

James Hinchcliffe:  [looking at Vernay]… I mean, I don’t even know why you’d show up.

Meanwhile, Vernay was turning back and forth between Kimball and Hinchcliffe smiling ear-to-ear.

J.K. Vernay won his fifth Indy Lights race of the season Sunday, extending his points-lead in the drivers’ championship.  Vernay started from pole position and led flag-to-flag despite pressure from American Charlie Kimball.  Vernay is now 3-for-3 when starting from pole position.  Kimball finished second for his fourth runner-up result of the 2010 season.  Canadian James Hinchcliffe finished third.

“I’m really happy,” said Vernay, who now holds a 71-point championship lead. “The car was really good.  I’m still focused on the championship because it’s never finished until the checkered flag of the final race.  Now, I hope to win on an oval.”

Kimball, who led the way in both practice sessions earlier in the weekend, started the race second.  He was passed by Hinchcliffe during the start and the top-three ran nose-to-tail for several laps.  On lap 16, Kimball made an impressive dive into Turn 9 (the chicane) to overtake Hinchcliffe for second place.  From there, Kimball and Vernay would trade fast lap after fast lap, but the closest Kimball would get is 0.6275 seconds on Lap 24.  Ultimately, Vernay ended up with the win and the fastest lap of the race (1:24.9443), beating Kimball to the stripe by 3.425 seconds.

“I just had to settle into a rhythm,” Kimball said. “It’s a great result being home in California. I’ve got a lot of friends and family here.”

Hinchcliffe held on for third with Gustavo Yacaman and Pippa Mann rounding out the top-five, respectively.  It was Mann’s first top-five finish.

The real story of the race was Dan Clarke.  Clarke was running fourth before contact with Sebastian Saavedra relegated him to the rear of the field.  For the time being, he was able to continue.  He proceeded to drive through the field, moving all the way up to fourth place (temporarily) as he and Gustavo Yacaman briefly traded spots.  Ultimately, Clarke lost his alternator while running fifth – which drained the battery – and he failed to finish the race.  At the checkered, he was classified 13th.

The hard charger of the event — other than Clarke — was Juan Pablo Garcia.  Garcia put together an impressive drive himself, moving from 12th on the grid to finish 6th after completing 40-laps.

For a much more detailed race recap, please replay my LiveBlog from Sunday afternoon.

Photographs and full results are posted just after the jump.

[Continue Reading...]

Jeremy Shaw, founder of the Team USA Scholarship, announced the names of eight nominees for the prestigious scholarship last weekend at Road America.

• Spencer Pigot (Skip Barber National)
• Felix Serralles (Skip Barber National)
• Neil Alberico (Bondurant Championship)
• Ashley Freiberg (Skip Barber National)
• Arie Ouimet (VW Jetta TDI Cup)
• Jonathan Scarallo (F2000 Championship)
• Miles Maroney (Pacific F2000)
• Patrick Gallagher (Formula E)

Following interviews and evaluation at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, two drivers will be selected to take part in the ultra-competitive Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy in England.

Over the next few days, I will write a brief post on each individual driver in order to introduce you to each.  The average age of the nominees in 2010 is 17.25 years of age.  Update: Team USA introductions are linked to each individual’s name above.  Enjoy.

You can read the official release here.

Related Reading: Team USA Scholarship

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.

Photographs and complete results after the jump.

[Continue Reading...]