2012 Star Mazda Championship

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]

2012 Star Mazda Championship
Previous: 2011 Next: 2013

The championship consisted of a main championship as well as a 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 25, 2012. 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 Archived 2011-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, Star Mazda Championship, December 1, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-04
  3. Juncos Racing Inks Venezuelans Palli and Ferreira for 2012 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, eFormulaCarNews, February 13, 2012, Retrieved 2012-02-13
  4. Piedrahita Rejoins JDC MotorSports for Title Challenge Archived 2012-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, eFormulaCarNews, December 12, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-12
  5. "'Woman Empowered' Freiberg joins JDC". Indycar.com. 6 February 2012. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  6. Team GDT Signs Colombian Up-and-Comer Mendez Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, 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 Archived 2012-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, eFormulaCarNews, December 12, 2011, Retrieved 2011-12-12
  9. Star Mazda: USF2000 Champion Suvanto Joins Defending Team Champion Team Pelfrey Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, 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
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