RACING FOR KIDS TEAMS WITH STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP FOR 4TH SEASON OF VISITING SICK KIDS -- DRIVERS TO VISIT FIVE HOSPITALS DURING 2009 SEASON
Racing for Kids, celebrating its 20th season of visiting sick kids in children’s hospitals around the world, will team up with the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear for five driver visits to Children’s Hospitals during the 2009 season. This marks the fourth season in a row that Racing for Kids and the Star Mazda Championship have worked together.
Racing for Kids / Star Mazda Championship Children’s Hospital visits are planned for Salt Lake City, Utah (Miller Motorsports Park) in May; Joliet, Illinois (Autobahn Chicago) in July; Trois Rivières, Quebec, in August; Atlanta, Georgia (Road Atlanta) in September; and Monterey, California (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) in October.
Star Mazda Championship drivers who have signed up to participate include:
Alex Ardoin – #51 JDC Motorsports / Oral & Facial Surgery Center / Twister Trailer
Toshihiro Deki – #80 Goshen Motorsports
Ryan Booth – #83 Goshen Motorsports
Chris Cumming - #16 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil
Billy Goshen – #82 Goshen Motorsports/Baker Commodities/GPSTrackit/OTTO/First Quality Concrete
Taylor Hacquard - #15 Kester Racing Team 3G / Wolfe Auto Group / Texas World Speedway
Kristy Kester – #48 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil
J.C. Kester – #24 Kester Racing Team 3G / Texas World Speedway / Motul Oil
Caio Lara – #19 JDC Motorsports / NILD / ATW
Joel Miller - #2 JDC Motorsports
"Last season was my first time with the Racing for Kids program and I found it very enjoyable," says Miller, the 2007 Skip Barber Pro Series champion and winner of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder scholarship. "It's amazing how much a colorful helmet can brighten up the day of a kid in the hospital."
Through the program, any Star Mazda Championship driver may join the Racing for Kids program by making a Racing for Kids-sponsored children’s hospital visit, where drivers visit with sick kids and sign autographs and hand out racing memorabilia. Racing for Kids then offers a $500 cash prize to the top finishing Racing for Kids driver in the race where there was a hospital visit, and a comparable cash donation to the Children’s Hospital in the top finishing driver’s name. A $1,000 cash prize will be offered to the best performing driver in the five race mini-series with another $1,000 going to the children’s healthcare institution of the driver’s choice. Joel Miller of Hesperia, California won the RFK Star Mazda title last year and Alex Ardoin of Lafayette, Louisiana won the honor in 2007.
Racing for Kids was started in 1989 by now retired Indy Driver and current Indy Racing League Team owner Robbie Buhl and Dr. Bill PInsky, a pediatric cardiologist. Since the time, Racing for Kids has visited more than 20,000 sick kids and raised and donated more than $5M to children’s healthcare institutions.
