KARAM QUICKEST IN THE AFTERNOON BUT CHAVES TOPS THE TIME SHEETS IN STAR MAZDA WEDNESDAY PRACTICE FOR THE 2012 SEASON FINALE AT PETIT LE MANS

Road Atlanta / October 17, 2012 - With the afternoon turning warm and the track, as a consequence, slowing down, it was Sage Karam in the #88 Andretti Autosport / Comfort Revolution Mazda who turned the quickest lap of the session, but Gabby Chaves who retained the quickest time of the day as the field of 18 cars completed practice for the season finale of the 2012 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear during this weekend's Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.Karam, the only driver in the 18s during the slipperier afternoon session, turned a 1:18.911, while Connor De Phillippi was 2nd-fast with a lap of 1:19.053 in his #2 Juncos Racing / ModSpace Racing / One24 Mazda.  Chaves was 3rd-quick with a 1:19.277.  Rounding out the top-5 were Zach Veach with a 1:19.545 in the #77 Andretti Autosport / K12 / Zakosi Data Backup Mazda and Bruno Palli, whose lap of 1:19.713 put him 5th on the afternoon chart. 

The top seven cars were all within one second of each other, setting up an interesting scenario for tomorrow's qualifying for the PEAK Performance Pole Award, scheduled to take place at 12:15 pm, Thursday, Oct. 18, with all the drivers aiming to the Star Mazda track record of 1:18.328 set by Peter Dempsey in 2008.  The 2012 season finale of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is scheduled for 50 minutes and will take the green light for the series' spectacular F1-style standing start at 3:45 Friday, Oct. 19. 

Star Mazda Championship cars all carry two Replay XD1080 cameras to provide exciting driver POV footage for races that are part of the Mazda Motorsports Hour broadcast tape-delayed on Discovery's Velocity Channel in the U.S. and globally on ESPN International.  In the U.S., the race will air on Velocity at 12 Noon, Saturday, November 24.