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STAR MAZDA: Maiden Win for Dempsey at Road America
Written by: SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com   
08/09/2008 - 07:07 PM
Elkhart Lake, Wis.
 
Peter Dempsey (Star Mazda photo) ยป More Photos

Irishman Peter Dempsey scored a long-overdue first win in the 2008 Star Mazda Championship in an intense see-saw battle in round 6 at Road America. Driving the #21 Andersen Racing / LotusWorks/ Center Jewellers.ie/Quayside.ie/ Allied Building Products Mazda, Dempsey qualified on the front row fought a race-long battle with pole-sitter John Edwards and made the pass for the lead on the next-to-last lap. Edwards, with victories at Miller Motorsports Park and Race 2 at Portland, started from the pole and finished second in the #7 AIM Autosport Mazda. Rounding out the top-3 was Watkins Glen winner Charles Hall, who started from 5th in the #77 Andersen Racing / Blimpie / AccentBanking.com/Pardoes Solicitors / Allied Building Products Mazda.

The top-finishing Master Series driver (45 and older) was the current points leader in the category, Californian Chuck Hulse. Driving the #12 JDC Motorsports / Silicon Salvage Mazda, he has now scored three class wins and finished 11th overall at Road America. Making his first visit to the podium as winner of the Expert Series (drivers 30 to 44) was J.W. Roberts. Racing the #65 Team GDT / GDT Mazda, he has finished top-3 in class at every race this season and was 16th overall in today's race.

"After how things went for us in Portland, and earlier this weekend, I'm just over the moon about finally winning my first race," said Dempsey, who suffered assorted mechanical problems in Portland and finished 18th in Race 1 and 19th in Race 2. "There I was with almost a two-second lead in the closing laps and another full-course yellow comes out… they didn't make it easy for me. But I got a good re-start and almost threw it away going too wide in turn 8 on the last lap, but the Andersen team gave me a great car for
the race and I was able to hold on to it. It worked out good for the points championship and if we can have another good result next weekend at Trois Rivières, we'll be right back in it."

The race was a nail-biter right from the start, including a first-turn, first-lap incident that saw two cars off into the gravel trap. That seemed to set the tone for the race, a series of full-course yellow flags interspersed with some extremely high-caliber racing. Sebring race winner Joel Miller led in the early stages in the #20 JDC Motorsports / Mazda / K&N Air Filters Mazda, but slowed in the closing stages of the race with mechanical problems. The battle throughout the field was so fierce that the final race action occurred when two cars crashed on the front straight 50 yards past the finish line. In the battle throughout were Alex Ardoin, who qualified 6th and finished 4th in the #51 Mundill Racing / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer Mazda, as well as Tom Gladdis, the 17 year-old racer from the British territory of Gibraltar who won both poles and one of the two races at Portland. He finished 5th in the #21 Andersen Racing / LotusWorks/Center Jewellers.ie/Quayside.ie/ Allied Building Products Mazda. Kristy Kester, one of the cars involved in the post-finish crash, followed up a 4th-place finish in Portland with a 9th-place finish at Road America and sits 8th in the championship battle. She drives the #48 Kester Racing / Texas World Speedway / Unifirst Mazda.

After round 6 at Road America, Charles Hall leads the championship battle with 211 points, followed by Alex Ardoin with 202 and Joel Miller with 200. Rounding out the top-5 are race winner Peter Dempsey in 4th with 184 points followed by tom Gladdis in 5th with 182.

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