2012 Star Mazda Championship

2012 Star Mazda Championship
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The 2012 Star Mazda Championship 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
Juncos Racing	2	Connor De Phillippi
	15	Bruno Palli[3]
	22	Martin Scuncio	Skipped Road Atlanta
	57	Diego Ferreira[3]
JDC Motorsports	9	Juan Piedrahita[4]
	16	Lloyd Read	Laguna Seca only
		Scott Anderson	Road Atlanta only
	19	Gabby Chaves
	91	Ashley Freiberg[5]
	99	Stefan Rzadzinski	Skipped Indianapolis, Iowa, Trois-Rivières, Laguna Seca, and Road Atlanta
The Racing Company	10	Jérimy Daniel	Skipped Indianapolis, Iowa and Edmonton
World Speed Motorsports	18	Kyle Kaiser	Laguna Seca only
Linares Racing	20	Carlos Linares
	21	Camilo Schmidt	Skipped Trois-Rivières
AIM Autosport	23	Walt Bowlin	Expert series; skipped Indianapolis, Iowa, Edmonton and Trois-Rivières
	66	Zack Meyer
	72	Larry Pegram	Expert series; St. Pete and Barber only
Team GDT	33	Ryan Tveter	Skipped Barber, Indianapolis, and Iowa
	39	Cory Lewis	Toronto only
	51	Alex Ardoin	Trois-Rivières only
	53	Andrés Méndez[6]
	65	J. W. Roberts	Expert series; St. Pete only
	97	Juan Camilo Acosta	Road Atlanta only
Robertshaw Racing	42	Blair Robertshaw	Expert series; Edmonton only
Andretti Autosport	77	Zach Veach[7]
	88	Sage Karam[8]
Team Pelfrey	81	Petri Suvanto[9]
	82	Jack Hawksworth[10]	Skipped Road Atlanta
		Ryan Tveter	Road Atlanta only
	83	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	Connor De Phillippi	Jack Hawksworth	Connor De Phillippi	Juncos Racing	IndyCar Series
2			March 25		Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey
3	Barber Motorsports Park	Birmingham, Alabama	April 1	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey	IndyCar Series
4					Jack Hawksworth	Martin Scuncio	Juncos Racing
5	Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis	Clermont, Indiana	May 26	Connor De Phillippi	Connor De Phillippi	Connor De Phillippi	Juncos Racing	USAC Midgets
6	Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa	June 23	Sage Karam	Sage Karam	Sage Karam	Andretti Autosport	IndyCar Series
7	Streets of Toronto	Toronto, Ontario	July 7	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey	IndyCar Series
8			July 8		Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey
9	Edmonton City Centre Airport	Edmonton, Alberta	July 21	Sage Karam	Jack Hawksworth	Camilo Schmidt	Linares Racing	IndyCar Series
10			July 22		Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey
11	Circuit Trois-Rivières	Trois-Rivières, Quebec	August 4	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey	Indy Lights
12			August 5		Jack Hawksworth	Sage Karam	Andretti Autosport
13	Streets of Baltimore	Baltimore, Maryland	September 1	Qualifying abandoned	Jack Hawksworth	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey	IndyCar Series
14			September 2		Sage Karam	Sage Karam	Andretti Autosport
15	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	September 8	Jack Hawksworth	Gabby Chaves	Jack Hawksworth	Team Pelfrey	Rolex Sports Car Series
16			September 9		Gabby Chaves	Gabby Chaves	JDC Motorsports
17	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	October 19	Gabby Chaves	Sage Karam	Gabby Chaves	JDC Motorsports	American Le Mans Series

Championship standings

Drivers'

Pos Driver STP BAR IND IOW TOR EDM TRO BAL LAG ATL Points Overall 1 Jack Hawksworth 2 1 1 2 7 15 1 1 7 1 1 12 1 2 1 2 397 2 Gabby Chaves 3 4 3 5 9 5 3 4 3 3 5 2 3 8 2 1 1 360 3 Sage Karam 8 7 2 12 2 1 21 3 2 2 2 1 15 1 7 19 2 325 4 Connor De Phillippi 1 5 5 3 1 3 7 16 6 13 3 13 2 3 3 3 3 325 5 Petri Suvanto 5 3 6 6 5 4 6 8 19 4 14 4 4 4 5 5 6 271 6 Diego Ferreira 7 9 9 7 10 8 5 5 10 11 16 15 5 5 4 4 4 235 7 Juan Piedrahita 4 2 8 4 8 14 4 2 8 16 9 11 19 9 8 9 9 234 8 Martin Scuncio 6 6 4 1 4 2 17 7 4 15 6 5 18 17 9 11 232 9 Gustavo Menezes 13 10 7 16 6 13 8 6 13 5 7 6 7 16 6 8 7 208 10 Zach Veach 17 11 15 10 3 6 2 17 9 17 8 8 8 6 11 17 8 199 11 Ashley Freiberg 9 19 11 11 15 10 13 13 15 7 12 9 6 10 12 18 11 162 12 Bruno Palli 14 15 13 20 14 7 10 15 18 12 10 17 10 7 20 10 5 146 13 Camilo Schmidt 12 18 17 9 13 12 19 18 1 9 17 14 19 6 16 129 14 Andrés Méndez 15 14 14 17 12 11 18 10 11 DSQ 13 7 12 18 15 15 15 128 15 Zack Meyer 19 13 19 19 16 9 9 9 16 18 15 18 13 15 18 12 10 114 16 Stefan Rzadzinski 10 8 10 8 11 12 17 6 9 11 108 17 Carlos Linares 20 12 12 14 11 DNS 15 14 14 8 11 16 16 19 14 20 106 18 Ryan Tveter 21 21 20 20 5 10 18 10 11 12 16 14 14 91 19 Walt Bowlin 18 17 18 18 16 19 14 13 17 16 17 55 20 Jérimy Daniel 11 20 20 15 14 11 17 14 49 21 Larry Pegram 16 16 16 13 23 22 Blair Robertshaw 12 14 16 J. W. Roberts DNS DNS 0 Ineligible drivers Alex Ardoin 4 3 0 Lloyd Read 10 7 0 Corey Lewis 12 21 0 Scott Anderson 12 0 Kyle Kaiser 13 13 0 Juan Camilo Acosta 13 0 Expert Series 1 Walt Bowlin 18 17 18 18 16 19 14 13 17 16 17 142 2 Larry Pegram 16 16 16 14 56 3 Blair Robertshaw 12 14 28 J. W. Roberts DNS DNS 0 Pos Driver STP BAR IND IOW TOR EDM TRO BAL LAG ATL 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	Team Pelfrey	451
2	Juncos Racing	416
3	JDC Motorsports	401
4	Andretti Autosport	349
5	Team GDT	195
6	Linares Racing	188
7	AIM Autosport	161
8	The Racing Company	76
9	World Speed Motorsports	24

References

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. 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. 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

• Star Mazda Championship Official website