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| August 31, 2012 News |
| Star Mazda: Karam Tops Chaotic Day in Baltimore |
 | Sage Karam overcame a very bumpy railroad section of the track in Baltimore to end the shortened day P1 on the speedcharts
(Photo: Star Mazda Championship - Eric McCombs) |
On a day turned chaotic by errant asphalt and very bumpy railroad tracks, Sage Karam's 1:28.8 in the Friday morning (August 31) Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear session at the Grand Prix of Baltimore held up as the quickest lap of the day. While his time was not recorded by the scoring system due to a transponder failure, it was verified by analysis of the footage from his on-board Replay XD camera.
The afternoon session, originally scheduled as a half-hour qualifying for Saturday's race one, was reduced to a 15 minute practice run by delays for track repairs, and then further truncated to a total of four 'hot laps' as a result of red flags generated by spinning race cars.
Under those difficult conditions, it was Connor De Phillippi who turned the session's quick time of 1:29.650 in his No. 2 Juncos Racing/ModSpace Racing/One24 Mazda. Karam followed with a 1:29.682 in the No. 88 Andretti Autosport/Comfort Revolution Mazda and rounding out the top-three was current championship points leader Jack Hawksworth with a 1:29.789 in the No. 82 Team Pelfrey/TORGOEN Swiss Watches/EXA Networks Mazda.
The day's schedule was already a shambles due to a paving problem over the railroad tracks on the back straight; the bump was sufficient to send cars flying and cause damage when they came back to earth - so the decision was made to try grinding it flatter. That reduced what was supposed to be a 30-minute qualifying session to 15 minutes and series officials made the call to consider the session 'practice only' and grid the cars for race one on the basis of points. As a result, Hawksworth will start from the inside of the front-row, but will not get the championship point typically awarded to the winner of the PEAK Performance Pole Award. For Race two on Sunday, the standard procedure will be utilized, with the starting grid determined by the quickest lap turned by each car during race one.
"The track situation isn't ideal, obviously, but everyone has to deal with the same thing, so it's all a level playing field," observed De Phillippi. "The grinding they did didn't really fix the problem, so we're all going to be faced tomorrow during the race with a chicane that wasn't here today, but again it's something everyone has to deal with, so we're just going to focus on our car and our race and not let that throw us off our game. I have to say, that other than the bump, the other changes that the event organizers have made to the track are all excellent. It's faster, safer, and should make for a better race for the fans now and in future years."
Star Mazda on-track action at the Indy Grand Prix of Baltimore continues with Saturday's (September 1) race one, scheduled for 30 minutes, with cars taking the green light for the series' spectacular F1-style standing start 2:35 pm local time. Race two, a 40-minute affair, takes the green at 11:35 am on Sunday (September 2).
The top-three will be posted following every session on the EFCN Facebook page, and EFCN Twitter page.
Star Mazda Championship
Round 13 - Combined Practice Results
August 31, 2012
Streets of Baltimore - Baltimore, Maryland
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Fast time | Session| 1. | Sage Karam | Andretti Autosport | 1:28.8 | Session 1 | | 2. | Petri Suvanto | Team Pelfrey | 1:29.045 | Session 1 | | 3. | Jack Hawksworth | Team Pelfrey | 1:29.185 | Session 1 | | 4. | Connor De Phillippi | Juncos Racing | 1:29.650 | Session 2 | | 5. | Zach Veach | Andretti Autosport | 1:29.998 | Session 1 | | 6. | Gustavo Menezes | Team Pelfrey | 1:30.156 | Session 1 | | 7. | Martin Scuncio | Juncos Racing | 1:30.560 | Session 2 | | 8. | Bruno Palli | Juncos Racing | 1:30.936 | Session 2 | | 9. | Stefan Rzadzinski | JDC MotorSports | 1:31.136 | Session 1 | | 10. | Diego Ferreira | Juncos Racing | 1:31.426 | Session 2 | | 11. | Ashley Freiberg | JDC MotorSports | 1:31.476 | Session 1 | | 12. | Carlos Linares | Linares Racing | 1:31.978 | Session 1 | | 13. | Camilo Schmidt | Linares Racing | 1:32.057 | Session 1 | | 14. | Zack Meyer | AIM Autosport | 1:32.117 | Session 1 | | 15. | Ryan Tveter | Team GDT | 1:32.117 | Session 1 | | 16. | Gabby Chaves | JDC MotorSports | 1:33.951 | Session 1 | | 17. | Andres Mendez | Team GDT | 1:33.985 | Session 1 | | 18. | Juan Piedrahita | JDC MotorSports | 1:34.318 | Session 2 | | 19. | Walt Bowlin | AIM Autosport | 1:39.619 | Session 1 | |
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