Following the conclusion of the 10-weekend, 17-race 2012 season on September 18 with a win from the pole at Road Atlanta by JDC Motorsports driver Gabriel 'Gabby' Chaves that clinched his second-place finish in the championship, the drivers, teams, crew and officials of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear gathered at the Chateau Elan in Braselton, Georgia for a unique 'Breakfast of Champions' awards ceremony.
The Star Mazda Championship, having concluded its 22nd season as one of the top open-wheel driver development series in the world, distributed a prize fund valued at more than $1,156,000 to the top fifteen drivers in the series, the series 'Rookie of the Year,' the top-3 finishers in the Expert Series, the top-3 finishers in the Team Championship and five special 'awards of merit.'
PEAK Performance Products also awarded $1,000 per pole position won during the season, and the premier motorsports insurance firm of Gregory & Appel presented the "Securing Tomorrow" award worth $2,000.
In addition to cash prizes and the Mazda Road to Indy scholarship, merchandise (including 34 sets of new Goodyear radial racing tires (two sets per weekend) and 17 sets of Performance Friction brake pads) valued at more than $50,000 is awarded via drawings conducted during driver meetings at each race weekend.
"At Star Mazda we feel that our mission of helping young drivers along their career path is best served by doing everything in the biggest and best way possible while still maintaining an affordable budget and providing the most racing per dollar of any open-wheel series," observed Gary Rodrigues, founder and President of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. "We work to produce the biggest prize fund of any open-wheel development series, we compete on the biggest race weekends on the IndyCar, ALMS and Grand-Am schedules, we are on TV around the world and we are an integral part of the premier driver development program in open-wheel racing, the Mazda Road to Indy. As a result, we see the very best young talent from around the world racing in the Star Mazda Championship on their way up. This was a remarkable season with an extremely deep talent pool and next year is already shaping up to be even bigger and better."
The Champion / $622,000 total
As overall champion, with a series-record eight wins, 10 poles, 11 fastest race laps, 12 podium finishes, 12 top-5 finishes and 14 top-10 finishes, English racer Jack Hawksworth, driver of the #82 Team Pelfrey / TORGOEN Swiss Watches / EXA Networks Mazda, scored 397 points and collected a total of $622,000 in prizes. This includes $100,000 in cash for winning the championship, $10,000 for winning Rookie of the Year, $10,000 in PEAK Performance Pole Awards and the $2,000 "Securing Tomorrow" prize from Gregory & Appel. These awards, plus $500,000 in scholarship funding from the Mazda Road to Indy for Hawksworth to compete in the 2013 Indy Lights series, bring his total to $622,000. Hawksworth's Lead Mechanic, Roger Kosik, also won The Performance Friction Crew Member of the Year Award, along with a check for $1,500.
"This has been one of those fantastic years that comes along once in a while that you will remember all your life," said Hawksworth. "It was only possible because all of the members of Team Pelfrey wanted it as much as I did, and worked together as a team to make it happen. My thanks to them, to Star Mazda, and to Mazda and to IndyCar for creating this amazing Mazda Road to Indy driver development program. It's been an amazing thing to be part of, and has certainly made me not only a better driver, but helped me develop the other skills I'll need if I'm to make a career in motorsports."
This was Hawksworth's first season in the Star Mazda championship, indeed his first season of racing in the U.S. and only his second season of open-wheel racing, including the Formula Renault UK Winter Series in 2009 where he won the pole four times and finished third in the championship. Moving up to a full season in the Formula Renault U.K championship in 2010, he won the pole in his debut race. Over the course of the season, he scored one pole, three fastest laps, one win and four podiums on his way to third in the championship. He was also chosen as a British Racing Drivers Club 'Rising Star' and was again nominated for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2012.
2nd -- 5th-Place Finishers / $201,000 total
Finishing second in the championship and collecting a check for $72,000, was Colombian racer Gabriel 'Gabby' Chaves. Racing the #19 JDC Motorsports / CLARO / Marca Colombia / Tecpro Mazda, he scored 360 points, including two wins, both from the PEAK Performance pole, including the season finale during the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. With the help of Engineer Rick Cameron and Lead Mechanic Scott Church, he scored two fastest race laps, six podium finishes, eleven top-5 finishes and eleven top-10 finishes.
Chaves, though a Star Mazda rookie, has substantial open-wheel experience in both the U.S. and Europe, including, most recently, being chosen for the prestigious 2012 FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy. He was the youngest driver ever to win the Skip Barber shootout in 2007 - including 17 races in a row in 2007-2008 - and the championship. In 2008 he moved up to the Formula BMW Pacific series at age 14 and won the Formula BMW Americas championship in 2009. He moved into the Spanish F3 Championship in 20010 and won Rookie of the Year, then moved up to compete in GP3 in 2011
Finishing third, and collecting a check for $52,000, was 17 year-old Nazareth, PA driver Sage Karam. This includes $50,000 for third place and $2,000 for two pole positions. With the assistance of Engineer Yancy Diotalevi and Lead Mechanic Fred Michael, he compiled 325 points and a record of three wins, two PEAK Performance Pole Awards, three Fastest Race Laps, nine podium finishes, ten top-5s and 13 top-10s. Karam and the team battled their way through an up-and-down season, finishing out of the top-15 three times, but also making breathtaking charges up through the field from the back to finish on the podium - no small feat in a field of 25 cars in a 40-minute race with no pit stops.
Karam won the 2010 USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda and moved up to Star Mazda in 2011 with scholarship funding from the Mazda Road to Indy. In his rookie season he won two races, both on ovals (Milwaukee and Iowa Speedway), started from the pole once and set two fastest race laps and finished in the top-5 seven times, clinching the Rookie of the Year title at the inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore. While nothing has yet been announced, Karam seems set to be one of several drivers moving up to Indy Lights in 2013.
Finishing 4th in the championship with 325 points (Note: since he scored the same number of points as Karam, their positions in the championship were determined by the number of wins) was Connor De Phillippi of San Clemente, CA, driving the #2 Juncos Racing / ModSpace Racing / One24 Mazda. He collected a check for $42,000 ($40,000 for 4th place and $2,000 in PEAK Performance Pole Awards). This was De Phillippi's third season in Star Mazda; he won the 2009 Skip Barber Championship and moved into Star Mazda in 2010 with scholarship funding from the Mazda Road to Indy. In his first season, he won the season finale from the pole, won Rookie of the Year and finished 3rd in the championship. In 2011, he won four races and finished 2nd in the championship.
2012 should have been his championship season, but a series of mechanical problems, on-track incidents and plain bad luck left him scrambling for every point. He scored two wins, both from the pole, as well as nine podium finishes, twelve top-5s and fourteen top-10s.
Finishing 5th in the championship with 271 points was Petri Suvanto of Nurmo, Finland, driving the #81 Team Pelfrey / Mazda Road to Indy Mazda. He won the 2011 USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda and moved up to Star Mazda in 2012 with scholarship funding from the Mazda Road to Indy. He scored two podium finishes, nine top-5s and fifteen top-10s, collecting a check for $35,000. If, as he intends, Suvanto returns for a second season of Star Mazda in 2013, he will be a top contender.
6th --1 5th-Place Finishers / $199,500 total
6th / $35,000 - Diego Ferreria, of Maracay, Venezuela, driving the #57 Juncos Racing / Team Viso Venezuela Mazda, with 235 points. He scored seven top-5 finishes and fourteen top-10s, including a run of 4th-place finishes in the last three races. Along with $30,000 for 6th-place, he also won $5,000 with the VP Fuels "Most Improved Driver Award." This was his rookie season in Star Mazda.
7th / $27,000 - Juan Piedrahita, of Bogot, Colombia, driving the #9 JDC Motorsports / Petrosur / Colombia es pasion / GFK Motors / Lamd Link Mazda, with 234 points. He finished on the podium twice, scored five top-5 finishes and fourteen top-10s. He competed in the USF2000 National Championship in 2011, also driving for JDC Motorsports and finished 7th in the championship. He ran a partial Star Mazda season in 2010.
8th / $25,000 - Martin Scuncio, of Concepcin, Chile, driving the #22 Juncos Racing / Pullman Bus / Gobierno Regional del Bio-Bio Mazda, with one win (in Race 2 at Barber Motorsports Park), two podium finishes, seven top-5s and twelve top-10s. Scuncio ran six Star Mazda races in 2011, starting from the pole and finishing 2nd in the season-opener at St. Petersburg.
9th / $22,500 - Gustavo Menezes, of Marina del Rey, California, driving the #83 Team Pelfrey / SafetyPark / Oakley Mazda, with 208 points. He scored two top-5 finishes, and twelve top-10s. This is his second season of Star Mazda competition; he finished on the podium once and was 8th in the championship in 2011.
10th / $20,000 - Zach Veach, of Stockdale, Ohio, driving the #77 Andretti Autosport / K12 / Zakosi Data Backup Mazda, with 199 points. He finished on the podium twice and scored eleven top-10 finishes. He ran two Star Mazda races last year, finishing on the podium in the season finale at Mazda Raceway. In the most recent Mazda Road to Indy test on the F1 course at the Indy Motor Speedway, he tested an Indy Lights car, setting the quickest time of the twelve drivers participating. He is a likely candidate to move up next season.
11th / $18,000- Ashley Freiberg, of Bondville, Vermont, driving the #91 JDC
Motorsports / TrueCar Mazda, with 162 points. The only female driver in the series this season, she scored five top-10 finishes, with a best of 6th in Race 1 at the Grand Prix of Baltimore. She is a graduate of the Lyn St. James Driver Development Academy and made history in 2010 with 25 wins in a single season, becoming the first female to win both a Skip Barber National race and championships.
12th / $16,000 - Bruno Palli, of Maracay, Venezuela, driving the #15 Juncos Racing / Team Viso Venezuela, with 146 points. He scored seven top-10 finishes, with a best of 5th in the season finale during the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. This was his rookie season in Star Mazda.
13th / $14,000 - Camilo Schmidt, of Mrida, Venezuela, driving the #21 Linares Racing Mazda, with 129 points. He scored three top-10 finishes, but one of those was a surprise win in the rain - the first-ever victory for Linares Racing, in Race 1 at Edmonton. Coming to Star Mazda directly from karting in South America, this was not only his rookie season in Star Mazda, but his first season racing cars.
14th / $12,000 - Andrs Mndez, of Bogot, Colombia, driving the #53 Team GDT / DataFile International SA / Grupo Kriterion, with 128 points. He scored two top-10 finishes, with a best of 6th in Race 2 during the GP3R at Trois-Rivires. This was his rookie season in Star Mazda.
15th / $10,000 - Zach Meyer, of Toronto, Canada, driving the #66 AIM Autosport / Damis Partners III Mazda, with 114 points. He scored four top-10 finishes, including a three-race run of 9th-place finishes in mid-season at Toronto and Edmonton. Meyer is a top kart racer in Canada and has driven several races each season in 2009 and 2010 with the Toronto-based AIM Autosport team. This was his first full season of Star Mazda Competition.
Experts Series / $30,000 total
The Star Mazda Championship is unique in featuring the Expert Series, a race-within-a-race category for more mature drivers (30 and older) in whom the competitive fire still burns brightly. Drivers utilize the same cars as regular series competitors, and run in the same events, which produces the spectacle of seeing doctors, company CEOs and entrepreneurs racing wheel-to-wheel with the hottest young drivers from around the world.
1st / $15,000-- Walt Bowlin, of Tarpon Springs, FL, driving the #23 AIM Autosport / Tampa Bay Jaw Surgery Mazda, with 142 points. Bowlin, with four years of competition in Star Mazda, scored seven in-class wins to win the Expert Series title in 2012. His best overall finish was 13th in Race 2 at the Baltimore Indy. He finished 3rd in the Master Series (for drivers 45 and older) in 2009 and was 4th in 2010. The classes were merged in 2011 and he finished 2nd with two in-class wins.
2nd / $10,000 - Larry Pegram, of Baltimore, Ohio, driving the #72 AIM Autosport Foremost Insurance Mazda, with 56 points. He scored four in-class wins, including the first four events of the season. This is his second season of Star Mazda competition; he finished 3rd in the class last year with three in-class wins. Pegram is a top racer in the AMA World Super Bike series who periodically trades his 2-wheeled racing machine for 4-wheels.
3rd / $5,000 - Blair Robertshaw, of Alberta, Canada, driving the #42 Robertshaw Racing / SEKO Construction / Web Mechanical Mazda, with 28 points. This was Robertshaw's rookie season of Star Mazda competition and he scored two in-class wins.
Team Championship / $30,000 total
The Star Mazda Championship 'Team Championship' is based on points earned by each team's two highest-finishing cars. Even in the case of larger teams, only the top-2 count toward the championship. Smaller, one-car teams get a bonus of 5 points per race to compensate and allow them to compete against larger teams.
1st / $15,000 - Team Pelfrey, for the second year in a row, with a total of 451 points. This is the team's second season of competition in the Star Mazda Championship and they fielded a 3-car effort throughout the season for series champion Jack Hawksworth, 2011 USF2000 champion Petri Suvanto (both rookies) and second-year driver Gustavo Menezes. Their cumulative totals include eight wins, ten PEAK Performance Pole Awards, eleven Fastest Race Laps, fourteen podium finishes, twenty-three top-5 finishes and forty-one top-10 finishes.
Team Pelfrey was an INDYCAR team from 1998-2001 and was noted for giving young drivers their 'big break' in INDYCAR. Owner Dale Pelfrey sold his aerospace company last year and decided to revive the team as a multi-car Star Mazda Championship effort and work their way back up to INDYCAR.
2nd / $10,000 - Juncos Racing, with a total of 416 points. This is the team's fourth year of competition in the Star Mazda Championship and they fielded a 4-car effort throughout the season, including two cars for Team Viso Venezuela scholarship drivers Diego Ferreria and Bruno Palli, as well as Connor De Phillippi and Martin Scuncio. Juncos Racing drivers scored three wins, two poles, eleven podium finishes, 27 top-5s and 42 top-10s. Juncos Racing won the championship in 2019 with Conor Daly, scoring a then-record seven wins and nine poles. Juncos operates its own ladder program with the Team Viso Venezuela scholarship and teams in both the Star Mazda Championship and Indy Lights series.
3rd / $5,000 - JDC Motorsports, with a total of 401 points. The team fielded a 3-car effort throughout the season for drivers Gabby Chaves, Juan Piedrahita and Ashley Freiberg. JDC drivers scored a cumulative total of two wins, two PEAK Performance Pole Awards, two Fastest Race Laps, eight podium finishes, sixteen top-5s and thirty top-10s. JDC Motorsports fielded the championship-winning effort for Tristan Vautier in 2011, and also won the driver's championship in 2007 with Dane Cameron and 2009 with Adam Christodoulou. JDC is also a multi-level operation, with teams in USF2000, Star Mazda and IMSA Prototype Lites.
Awards of Merit / $37,000 total.
New awards of merit this season include the PEAK Performance Pole Award, which provides a $1,000 check for each pole position scored by a driver, and the Gregory & Apell "Securing Tomorrow" Award, which provides a $2,000 check to the series champion, Jack Hawksworth. In addition, ReplayXD, the company that supplies each of the cars competing in the Star Mazda Championship with two on-board high-definition cameras, recognized two team members - Barry Mumm of JDC Motorsports and Ashton Evans of AIM Autosport - as providing an extraordinary level of help and support during the season. Each was awarded a ReplayXD 1080 camera kit valued at $299 each.
The PEAK Performance Pole Award paid a total of $16,000 this season (in one event, due to weather, the pole was decided on points rather than qualifying, therefore no point was awarded). Jack Hawksworth collected the lion's share, a total of $10,000. Collecting $2,000 each were Gabby Chaves, Sage Karam and Connor De Phillippi.
The Quartermaster "Clutch Performer Award" is designed to keep drivers motivated in the home stretch with a prize for gaining the most positions in the Championship standings in the second half of the season. The trophy and check for $5000 was presented to series rookie Ryan Tveter, driver of the #33 Team GDT / CIMIER Swiss Watches / Motorola Mobility LLC Mazda (Note: Tveter switched to Team Pelfrey for the final race of the season).
The BBS 'Hard Charger Award" is scored over all 10 weekends and 17 races during the season and is presented to the driver who gains the most places in total from the beginning to end of the races. The prize, a custom-made coffee table made from a polished BBS wheel and etched glass top, plus a set of four BBS racing or BBS road car wheels (valued at $5,000), was presented to Andrs Mndez, driver of the #53 Team GDT / DataFile International SA / Grupo Kriterion Mazda.
The VP Fuel "Most Improved Driver Award" is a consensus award that is nominated by all participants, drivers and teams, in the Star Mazda Championship. It is awarded to the driver who has shown the most growth and improvement as a driver. A trophy and check for $5,000 were presented to Diego Ferreria, driver of the #57 Juncos Racing / Team Viso Venezuela Mazda.
The Performance Friction Company "Crew Member of the Year Award" is also the result of nominations from all Star Mazda Championship participants and is awarded to the team member who has done a consistently outstanding job throughout the season. The award, and a check for $1,500, was presented to Roger Kosik, Lead Mechanic on series champion Jack Hawksworth's #82 Team Pelfrey / TORGOEN Swiss Watches / EXA Net works Mazda.
The President's Cup, also known as the "Spirit of the Star Mazda Championship Award," is also a consensus award, ultimately decided by the founder and President of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, Gary Rodrigues. It, along with a check for $2,500, is awarded to the person who most typifies the qualities and character that the Star Mazda Championship values and promotes; for 2012, that person was Scott Church, Lead Mechanic on Gabby Chaves' #19 JDC Motorsports / CLARO / Marca Colombia / Tecpro Mazda.
