2012 Star Mazda Championship season

2012 Star Mazda season
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The 2012 Star Mazda Championship season was the 14th season of the Star Mazda Championship, an American-based open-wheel racing series sanctioned by IndyCar as part of the Road to Indy program. It featured 17 races held over 10 race weekends.[1] Five race weekends were held on temporary street courses, three on permanent road courses, and two on ovals. The series increased the number of double-header weekends to reduce the costs per race for competitors. Fastest lap times in race 1 determined the starting grid for race 2 on double-header race weekends.[2]

The championship consisted of a main championship as well as an Star Mazda Expert Series for drivers over 30 years old. The expert class consists of a driver's best 10 races, enabling an Expert Series competitor to complete a full complement of races in just five race weekends.[2]

21-year-old Englishman Jack Hawksworth driving for Team Pelfrey dominated the championship, winning eight of the 17 races and four of the eight poles awarded, setting a series record for wins in a season. He sat out the final race of the year but still won the championship over Colombian-American Gabby Chaves by 37 points. Chaves won the final two races of the season. American Sage Karam won three races and finished third in points in a tie-breaker over fellow American Connor De Phillippi who won two races after finishing second in points a year ago. Finn Petri Suvanto finished fifth in points, in his first season in Star Mazda, winning the seat by winning the Road to Indy's U.S. F2000 National Championship the year before. Other race winners were Chile's Martin Scuncio and Venezuela's Camilo Schmidt, who won a bizarre wet-dry race in Edmonton.

American Walt Bowlin won the Expert series championship by virtue of being the only Expert series competitor to participate in more than two race weekends.

Drivers and teams

Team No. Drivers Notes
United States Juncos Racing 2 United States Connor De Phillippi
15 Venezuela Bruno Palli[3]
22 Chile Martin Scuncio Skipped Road Atlanta
57 Venezuela Diego Ferreira[3]
United States JDC Motorsports 9 Colombia Juan Piedrahita[4]
16 United States Lloyd Read Laguna Seca only
United States Scott Anderson Road Atlanta only
19 Colombia Gabby Chaves
91 United States Ashley Freiberg[5]
99 Canada Stefan Rzadzinski Skipped Indianapolis, Iowa, Trois-Rivières, Laguna Seca, and Road Atlanta
Canada The Racing Company 10 Canada Jérimy Daniel Skipped Indianapolis, Iowa and Edmonton
United States World Speed Motorsports 18 United States Kyle Kaiser Laguna Seca only
Venezuela Linares Racing 20 Venezuela Carlos Linares
21 Venezuela Camilo Schmidt Skipped Trois-Rivières
Canada AIM Autosport 23 United States Walt Bowlin Expert series; skipped Indianapolis, Iowa, Edmonton and Trois-Rivières
66 Canada Zack Meyer
72 United States Larry Pegram Expert series; St. Pete and Barber only
United States Team GDT 33 United States Ryan Tveter Skipped Barber, Indianapolis, and Iowa
39 United States Cory Lewis Toronto only
51 United States Alex Ardoin Trois-Rivières only
53 Colombia Andrés Méndez[6]
65 United States J. W. Roberts Expert series; St. Pete only
97 Colombia Juan Camilo Acosta Road Atlanta only
Canada Robertshaw Racing 42 Canada Blair Robertshaw Expert series; Edmonton only
United States Andretti Autosport 77 United States Zach Veach[7]
88 United States Sage Karam[8]
United States Team Pelfrey 81 Finland Petri Suvanto[9]
82 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth[10] Skipped Road Atlanta
United States Ryan Tveter Road Atlanta only
83 United States Gustavo Menezes[11]

Race calendar and results

The series schedule was announced December 1, 2011. Two race weekends were listed on the schedule with the location yet to be determined.[2] The season finale was later confirmed to be held at Road Atlanta, supporting the Petit Le Mans sportscar event.[1]

Rnd Circuit Location Date Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team Supporting
1 Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida March 24 United States Connor De Phillippi United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Connor De Phillippi United States Juncos Racing IndyCar Series
2 March 25 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey
3 Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama April 1 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey IndyCar Series
4 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth Chile Martin Scuncio United States Juncos Racing
5 Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis Clermont, Indiana May 26 United States Connor De Phillippi United States Connor De Phillippi United States Connor De Phillippi United States Juncos Racing USAC Midgets
6 Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa June 23 United States Sage Karam United States Sage Karam United States Sage Karam United States Andretti Autosport IndyCar Series
7 Streets of Toronto Toronto, Ontario July 7 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey IndyCar Series
8 July 8 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey
9 Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta July 21 United States Sage Karam United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth Venezuela Camilo Schmidt Venezuela Linares Racing IndyCar Series
10 July 22 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey
11 Circuit Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Quebec August 4 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey Indy Lights
12 August 5 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Sage Karam United States Andretti Autosport
13 Streets of Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland September 1 Qualifying abandoned United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey IndyCar Series
14 September 2 United States Sage Karam United States Sage Karam United States Andretti Autosport
15 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California September 8 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth Colombia Gabby Chaves United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth United States Team Pelfrey Rolex Sports Car Series
16 September 9 Colombia Gabby Chaves Colombia Gabby Chaves United States JDC Motorsports
17 Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia October 19 Colombia Gabby Chaves United States Sage Karam Colombia Gabby Chaves United States JDC Motorsports American Le Mans Series

Championship standings

Drivers'

Pos Driver STP
United States
BAR
United States
IND
United States
IOW
United States
TOR
Canada
EDM
Canada
TRO
Canada
BAL
United States
LAG
United States
ATL
United States
Points
Overall
1 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth 2 1 1 2 7 15 1 1 7 1 1 12 1 2 1 2 397
2 Colombia Gabby Chaves 3 4 3 5 9 5 3 4 3 3 5 2 3 8 2 1 1 360
3 United States Sage Karam 8 7 2 12 2 1 21 3 2 2 2 1 15 1 7 19 2 325
4 United States Connor De Phillippi 1 5 5 3 1 3 7 16 6 13 3 13 2 3 3 3 3 325
5 Finland Petri Suvanto 5 3 6 6 5 4 6 8 19 4 14 4 4 4 5 5 6 271
6 Venezuela Diego Ferreira 7 9 9 7 10 8 5 5 10 11 16 15 5 5 4 4 4 235
7 Colombia Juan Piedrahita 4 2 8 4 8 14 4 2 8 16 9 11 19 9 8 9 9 234
8 Chile Martin Scuncio 6 6 4 1 4 2 17 7 4 15 6 5 18 17 9 11 232
9 United States Gustavo Menezes 13 10 7 16 6 13 8 6 13 5 7 6 7 16 6 8 7 208
10 United States Zach Veach 17 11 15 10 3 6 2 17 9 17 8 8 8 6 11 17 8 199
11 United States Ashley Freiberg 9 19 11 11 15 10 13 13 15 7 12 9 6 10 12 18 11 162
12 Venezuela Bruno Palli 14 15 13 20 14 7 10 15 18 12 10 17 10 7 20 10 5 146
13 Venezuela Camilo Schmidt 12 18 17 9 13 12 19 18 1 9 17 14 19 6 16 129
14 Colombia Andrés Méndez 15 14 14 17 12 11 18 10 11 DSQ 13 7 12 18 15 15 15 128
15 Canada Zack Meyer 19 13 19 19 16 9 9 9 16 18 15 18 13 15 18 12 10 114
16 Canada Stefan Rzadzinski 10 8 10 8 11 12 17 6 9 11 108
17 Venezuela Carlos Linares 20 12 12 14 11 DNS 15 14 14 8 11 16 16 19 14 20 106
18 United States Ryan Tveter 21 21 20 20 5 10 18 10 11 12 16 14 14 91
19 United States Walt Bowlin 18 17 18 18 16 19 14 13 17 16 17 55
20 Canada Jérimy Daniel 11 20 20 15 14 11 17 14 49
21 United States Larry Pegram 16 16 16 13 23
22 Canada Blair Robertshaw 12 14 16
United States J. W. Roberts DNS DNS 0
Ineligible drivers
United States Alex Ardoin 4 3 0
United States Lloyd Read 10 7 0
United States Corey Lewis 12 21 0
United States Scott Anderson 12 0
United States Kyle Kaiser 13 13 0
Colombia Juan Camilo Acosta 13 0
Expert Series
1 United States Walt Bowlin 18 17 18 18 16 19 14 13 17 16 17 142
2 United States Larry Pegram 16 16 16 14 56
3 Canada Blair Robertshaw 12 14 28
United States J. W. Roberts DNS DNS 0
Pos Driver STP
United States
BAR
United States
IND
United States
IOW
United States
TOR
Canada
EDM
Canada
TRO
Canada
BAL
United States
LAG
United States
ATL
United States
Points
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished
(Outside Top 10)
Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify
(DNQ)
Brown Withdrawn
(Wth)
Black Disqualified
(DSQ)
White Did not start
(DNS)
Blank Did not
participate
(DNP)
Not competing
In-line notation
Bold Pole position
(1 point)
Italics Ran fastest race lap
(1 point)
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Overall Points 29 25 22 19 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Teams'

Pos Team Points
1 United States Team Pelfrey 451
2 United States Juncos Racing 416
3 United States JDC Motorsports 401
4 United States Andretti Autosport 349
5 United States Team GDT 195
6 Venezuela Linares Racing 188
7 Canada AIM Autosport 161
8 Canada The Racing Company 76
9 United States World Speed Motorsports 24

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Star Mazda Championship Announces 2012 Season Finale to Be Held at 15th Annual Petit LeMans Powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta October 17–20" (PDF). December 16, 2011. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 THE STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP TAKES A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN 2012 WITH AN 18-RACE SCHEDULE ON 10 WEEKENDS, MOST WITH INDYCAR, Star Mazda Championship, December 1, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-04
  3. 3.0 3.1 Juncos Racing Inks Venezuelans Palli and Ferreira for 2012, eFormulaCarNews, February 13, 2012, Retrieved 2012-02-13
  4. Piedrahita Rejoins JDC MotorSports for Title Challenge, eFormulaCarNews, December 12, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-12
  5. "'Woman Empowered' Freiberg joins JDC". Indycar.com. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  6. Team GDT Signs Colombian Up-and-Comer Mendez, eFormulaCarNews, February 1, 2012, Retrieved 2012-02-01
  7. Andretti Autosport Confirms Veach, eFormulaCarNews, January 13, 2012, Retrieved 2012-01-13
  8. Rookie of the Year Karam Returns with Andretti Autosport, eFormulaCarNews, December 12, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-12
  9. Star Mazda: USF2000 Champion Suvanto Joins Defending Team Champion Team Pelfrey, eFormulaCarNews, January 20, 2012, Retrieved 2012-01-20
  10. Hawksworth Signs With Team Pelfrey For Star Mazda Championship, Paddock Talk, November 22, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-04
  11. Menezes joins Pelfrey Star Mazda squad, Racer, November 29, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-04

External links