Dempsey has a solid start to Star Mazda Title Challenge

Added: 25th March 2009

 

Peter Dempsey who won four races in last year's Star Mazda Championship got off to a solid start at Round 1 at Sebring 12hrs race last Friday 20th March. Arriving over from Ireland and going straight into a new car, new team and trying to develop new parts was always going to be a tough challenge The Dunlop Motorsport Ireland Young Driver was never going to give up and was determined to get to the front of the field by race day in his Aim Autosport #3 car. The first day of practice was just about getting a feel for the car again and working with a new team. By day 3 of practice Peter was starting to get to grips with the team and this proved in his lap times as ran as high as P2 in the final practice session. Going into the Thursday qualifying Peter's confidence was growing although not where they wanted to be he felt he had a car to get good solid points in the first round. Now with a new engine fitted for qualifying surely he would have a good session. This was the case as Peter spent most of the session in the top 3 but as the qualifying came to an end Peter in his Motorsport Ireland/Aim Autosport backed Star Mazda managed an impressive 5th in his first qualifying with a new team.

Race Day - Peter went into race day with more confidence than he had all week as was really up for the challenge. The aim was to come away with solid points from a tough weekend. Getting off to a good start Peter made his way up to 3rd position by lap three and set his sights on chasing down the leaders. This was made easier when a full course yellow came out due to an accident on track. As the race went green Peter got a great restart and challenged for the lead at turn 1 on the outside. He felt it was a little dangerous and decided to settle into 3rd. He ran in 3rd position for most of the race and was comfortably running behind the leaders. Unfortunately this wasn't to last as he was to experience a loss of power and dropped back to 4th. With three laps to go the final caution came out and at the restart Peter would fall back two more positions due to the loss of power and would finish the weekend in a solid 6th place.

" I would like to say a special thank you to Motorsport Ireland and all my crew at Aim Autosport. It was a real tough week here at Sebring but I am glad I could bring the car home with good points. I was a little rusty early in the week but I felt we all improved as the week went on and to nearly lead the race was a great achievement. Now it will be all about trying to get a grip on the new parts and hopefully come to round two at VIR in Virginia on the 25th April we will be able to challenge for the race win. I really enjoyed the weekend and the Star Mazda Championship is going to be extremely competitive this year and won't be easy for anyone. It is going to take a lot of hard work and determination to make sure we are at the top at the end of the season."

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