Daly Victory Train De-Railed, Brazilian Lara Scores first win at Star Mazda NJ

New Jersey Motorsports Park - The Gods of Racing havee had their laugh. The more you talk about a record waiting to be broken, somehow the less likely it becomes. Starting from the pole for the fourth time this season, Conor Daly ? starting from the pole for the fourrth time this season -- was reasonably expecting to break the all-time Star Mazda Championship win record of four in a row. Until the green light signaling the traditional Star Mazda standing start, that is. What the officials saw on TV was both Daly and Vautier, starting side-by-side on the front row, accelerating before the green? which resulted in a drive-through penalty for booth drivers that dropped them to the back of the field.

Race 1 podium Credit: Star Mazda

Then there was one of those multi-car, 'what were they thinking' melees between several of the top runners, compounded by yet another incident as the re-formed field approached the starter's stand for a resumption of racing. Throughout this long full-course yellow, third-season Brazilian racer Caio Lara, driving the #19 JDC Motorsports / MLD / ATW Mazda, was in the lead? a lead he lost when 2nd-place finisherr Anders 'The Viking' Krohn passed him briefly ? and was re-passed in return onn the same lap. And surely he must have been hearing in his headphones about the relentless charge of Conor Daly, a man on a mission who performed racing's version of kinetic miracles carving his way back up through the field to salvage a podium finish.

The top-finishing driver in the Master/Expert category was Master Series (driver 45 and older) racer Gerry Kraut, who qualified 16th and finished 13th overall in his #55 JDC Motorsports / Dougherty & Co. / Dougherty Funding LLC Mazda. Leading the charge among the Expert Series racers (drivers 30-44 years old) was Texan J.W. Roberts, who finished 14th overall at the wheel of his #65 Team GDT / General Data Tech Mazda.

"I'm so happy to finally score my first win in Star Mazda and all my thanks to the JDC Motorsports team for giving me a car capable of winning the race," said Lara, who has scored top-5 finishes in both races at NJMP last season and, by virtue of his victory today, has move up to 5th in the championship with 193 points. "The car was the best is has been all season, and now with the confidence of this win, we must work hard to qualify well tomorrow and try to repeat this outcome."

Lara has been a consistently fast competitor this year; he has already scored one podium -- and finished in the top-10 at every race. Daly remains in the lead with 254 points, four wins, four podiums and two podiums. Anders Krohn, who started from the pole at the 12 Hours of Sebring season-opener, remains second in the championship with 211 points, two podiums and four top-5 finishes.

Vautier, who started from the front row alongside Daly and suffered the same drive-through penalty- also slashed his way back up through the field in his #38 Andersen Racing / Moulin TP / Cecibon / Circuit du Laquais Mazda to finish 6th. In between, MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder driver Connor De Phillippi moved up from 7th on the starting grid to finish 4th in his #11 JDC Motorsports / MAZDASPEED Motorsports / Skip Barber Mazda. And quick young Quebec racer Mikael Grenier, who started from 6th on the grid in the #17 Andersen Racing / Slow Cow / April Super Flow / NAPA Auto Parts / HS Telecom / Desharnais Mazda, raced his way up to 5th. Larry Pegram, the AMA SuperBike racer making his 4-wheeled debut in the #72 AIM Autosport / Tampa Bay Jaw Surgery / Foremost Insurance Mazda, started 19th on the grid and finished 17th.

Pos No  Name                Laps    Diff
1   19  Caio Lara            29          
2   47  Anders Krohn         29     2.650
3   22  Conor Daly           29     9.918
4   11  Connor De Phillippi  29    10.476
5   17  Mikael Grenier       29    11.555
6   38  Tristan Vautier      29    12.566
7   18  Joao Horto           29    13.680
8   85  Chris Miller         29    28.404
9    9  Jorge Goncalvez      29    31.472
10  28  Juan Piedrahita      29    34.616
11  25  Tatiana Calderon     29    40.743
12  81  Nick Andries         29    49.347
13  55  Gerry Kraut          29    50.431
14  65  J.W. Roberts         29    57.633
15  31  Carlos Conde         29    59.295
16  20  Carlos Linares       29  1:06.557
17  72  Larry Pegram         28    1 Lap 
18  37  Dom Bastien          28    1 Lap 
19  23  Walt Bowlin          27    2 Laps
20  66  Rusty Mitchell        4   25 Laps
21  64  Patrick O'Neill       3   26 Laps
22  16  David Ostella             29 Laps

All the racing action this weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park, including the Star Mazda Championship, the Cooper Tires Presents USF2000 National Championship powered by Mazda, Mazda MX-5 Cup, IMSA Prototype Lites and the Patron GT3Challenge, will be broadcast live on HDnet. The pre-race show takes place 12:30 pm ? 1:00 pm, and 1:00pm ? 4:00 pm will be livlive coverage of the Playboy Mazda MX 5 Cup, USF2000, and The Star Mazda/Visit Florida Cup. All times are Eastern. Rick Benjamin will call the play-by-play, and a pair of well-known racers, Johnny O'Connell (USF2000 and Star Mazda) and Elliott Forbes-Robinson (Mazda MX-5 Cup) will be the on-air analysts. Todd Lewis will be the pit reporter. In addition to the live broadcast, both Playboy Mazda MX 5 Cup races and one of the two Star Mazda Championship races will be cable syndicated across the USA, Canada and worldwide.

The NJMP weekend is part of the partnership between MAZDASPEED and VISIT FLORIDA that includes the 5-weekend, 7-race VISIT FLORIDA Cup, a championship-within-a-championship in which the driver scoring the most points during the five VISIT FLORIDA weekends will win both the VISIT FLORIDA Cup and a personalized Florida dream vacation.

Qualifying for Sunday's Race #2 / Round 7 is from 9:05 am ?? 9:50 am, with the race start scheduled for 3:05 pm.

Print This Page	Go back to the previous page