A Trio Of Star Mazda Championship Graduates Are Racing In Nascar Events This Weekend At The Milwaukee Mile

Milwaukee Mile, West Allis WI - Three of the top young drivers in this weekend's NASCAR events at the Milwaukee Mile are graduates of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear ?? also competing here this weekend for the first time since 2006. Now in its 19th year as one of the premier 'gateway' training series for young drivers, Star Mazda Championship graduates include Indy Car stars Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal, as well as rising NASCAR stars Michael McDowell, Brad Coleman and Colin Braun.

All three competed in the Star Mazda Championship during the 2004 season. McDowell won the championship with a dominant performance of seven wins and six pole positions. He graduated from Star Mazda to the Grand-Am Daytona Prototype series and Champ Car, moving over to stock cars in 2007 in the ARCA RE/MAX series. He was Rookie of the Year and runner-up in the championship and moved from directly to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Michael Waltrip Racing. He currently drives the #47 Daugherty Racing / Tom's Snacks Toyota and is 11th in the championship.

Brad Coleman was a fellow classmate of McDowell's during the 2004 Star Mazda Championship season and was the youngest driver ever to receive a professional open-wheel racing license, at age 14 in 2002. At age 16, he, Colin Braun and another Star Mazda driver, Adrian Carrio ? all of them 16 years old ? joined to race the No. 16 Team16 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race. He graduated to the ARCA RE/MAX series in 2006 and made his first Busch Series start the same week he graduated from high school. Coleman currently drives the #20 Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Colin Braun, who competed in Star Mazda in 2004 and 2005, made history as the youngest Daytona Prototype driver at 17 and in 2006 became the youngest winner of a major auto race in North American with his win at the Brumos Porsche 250 in Daytona. In 2007, Braun signed a driver development contract with Roush Fenway Racing and made his stock car debut in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Gateway International Raceway and in 2008 became the full-time driver of the #6 Con-Way Ford F-150 in the Camping World Truck Series. On June 13, 2009, he scored his first career Truck Series win at Michigan.

The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is the college baseball of Indy-style auto racing, a high-speed training ground for future stars of the sport with a $1.5 million prize fund. This is the first of two oval tracks on the 2009 Star Mazda Calendar (including 100 laps under the lights with the ARCA RE/MAX series at Iowa Speedway on July 10). In Star Mazda pre-race testing at the Milwaukee Mile last month, the fastest lap was turned by the youngest rookie in the series, 16 year-old Michael Furfari. Driving the #13 Juncos Racing / Furfari Paving Mazda, the 5-ft.5-in., 120-pound student from Toronto turned a fast lap of 27.548 (130.681 mph) ? in 2008, the pole speed for thee Nationwide race was 121.298 mph.

Weather permitting, on-track action for The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear begins with a one hour practice session from 3:15 ? 4:155 pm Friday, June 19. Qualifying (if it takes place, again due to weather) will be from Noon to 1:00 pm Saturday, June 20th. If qualifying is cancelled, the field will line up according to points, with Irishman Peter Dempsey, the current championship leader on the pole in his #3 Juncos Racing / HOOTERS / Motorsport Ireland / Queyside.ie Mazda.

The event will be 100 laps of flat-out, side-by-side racing with no pit stops. The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is now in its 19th year as one of the most successful open-wheel driver development series in North America; the Milwaukee Mile race is Round 6 of the 11-weekend, 13-race (two double-headers) 2009 Star Mazda Championship race schedule that includes road courses, oval tracks and street circuits in both the U.S. and Canada.

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