Written by:
Kevin Krefting
10/01/2007
Braselton, Ga.
Cameron (C) can clinch the '07 title this weekend at Road Atlanta. (Star Mazda photo)
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The Star Mazda championship has announced that its 2007 championship prize money will reach a record figure.
Part of the Mazda-backed "Motorsports Ladder", the Star Mazda series is a step in a program that reaches all the way from karting to Champ Car. The winner of a shootout among 2007 karting champions will get a scholarship in the 2008 Skip Barber series, while the Skip Barber champion moves up to Star Mazda. The Star Mazda champion moves up to the Champ Car Atlantic Series and the Atlantic champion gets $2 million from Champ Car toward a Champ Car drive.
With money paid down through 15th-place in the championship, total prizes approach $1.5 million. The series champion not only gets a sponsorship to race in next year's Atlantic series, but also a cash award of $100,000 plus a brand-new Mazda RX-8 sports car. The series' Rookie of the Year award is worth $10,000 and contingency awards from participating suppliers such as Goodyear, Quartermaster Clutches, BBS Wheels, VP Fuels, Performance Friction Brakes and Staubli dry break systems, boost the total to almost $1.5m.
"The Star Mazda Championship offers an opportunity to race in the United States in one of the most successful and affordable manufacturer-supported driver development series," says Star Mazda Championship founder and president Gary Rodrigues. "It is also a gateway series to many other forms of racing because once you learn to drive an open-wheel car competitively, it becomes much easier to adapt to and excel in other kinds of cars. Graduates of the Star Mazda Championship have gone on to salaried rides in F1, Champ Car, Indy 500, prototypes, sports cars and stock cars. The racing world is full of Star Mazda graduates and we're proud of them. But we also look forward every year to a new class of young hotshoes who will be the racing stars of tomorrow."
It's quite probable that this year's Star Mazda Championship will be decided at the upcoming Round Eleven at Road Atlanta. 18 year-old Californian Dane Cameron, who has won previous open-wheel and karting championships but is in his first year of Star Mazda racing, needs only to finish eighth or better to become the first rookie in the series 17-year history to win the championship. Cameron, who has won three races, started from the pole five times and scored four podium finishes is already experiencing the benefits of a high-profile season in Star Mazda: he was invited to co-drive with Michael Valiante in the Chip Ganassi w/Felix Sabates #19 Z-Line Designs/ Mission Residential Riley Daytona Prototype in the Grand-Am Rolex Series season finale Sunchaser 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park on September 15.
Star Mazda races are broadcast on the SPEED Channel, with the Road Atlanta event scheduled to air on Saturday, October 13 at 12 noon ET.
