Star Mazda Qualifying Road America
Dempsey, who did not run in this morning's practice session, led the early stages of qualifying and ultimately posted a 2nd-fast lap of 2:05.540 (116.081 mph) in the #21 Andersen Racing / LotusWorks/ Allied Building Products Mazda, his best qualifying effort so far this season.
Rounding out the top-3 was the winner of Race 1/Round 4 at the Mazda Grand Prix of Portland, Tom Gladdis, the 17 year-old driver from the British territory of Gibraltar. He turned a lap of 2:05.540 (115.815 mph) in the #5 Andersen Racing / Law firm of Marrache & Co. / Allied Building Products Mazda.
"We knew the car was good on old tires so we went out in the first part of the session on tires that had eighty or a hundred miles on them and were within half a second of the front-runners," said Edwards, whose two victories have come at his debut Star Mazda race at Miller Motorsports Park (where he won from the pole) and Race2/Round 5 at Portland.
"I radioed the guys in the pits and said 'If we put on some stickers, we'll be P1 for sure.' But the new set had a huge vibration that turned out to just be a balance problem, so I went back out and put the hammer down and went fast enough for the pole. I expect this will be a really close, competitive race with lots of passing at the front of the field, and I can't wait for the start."
Rounding out the to-5 were MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder scholarship winner Joel Miller (who also won the season opener at Sebring and is the current championship points leader). He was 4th with a 2:05.903 (115.746 mph) in the #20 JDC Motorsports / Mazda / K&N Air Filters Mazda. Starting 5th will be Charles Hall, who won round 3 at Watkins Glen and is currently 2nd in the championship battle. He turned a lap of 2:06.250 (115.428 mph) in the #77 Andersen Racing / Blimpie / AccentBanking.com/ Allied Building Products Mazda.
The top-qualifying Expert was Vancouver native Chris Cumming, who is currently leading the Expert championship battle with four class wins, including both races in Portland. His lap of 2:07.480 (114.314 mph) in the #16 World Speed Motorsports / Inviro Medical Mazda was 12th-fast overall. "I'm both happy and disappointed because I had a lap going that was half a second quicker, which would have put me in the top-6 but the red flag came out just as I was heading for start/finish and timing was stopped," said Cumming.
The quickest Master Series driver was Gerry Kraut, with a 17th-quick overall lap of 2:08.263 (113.617 mph) in the #55 JDC Motorsports / Dougherty & Co. / Dougherty Funding LLC Mazda. Kraut has scored one class win and four class podium finishes so far this season.
The 45-minute Round 6 of the 2008 Star Mazda championship is scheduled to take the green flag at 2:25 pm Saturday, August 8. The race will be broadcast on SPEED TV on August 23 at 12:00 pm (ET).