Brabham Caps off Season with Win Number 13 at Houston

Houston, Texas – Matthew Brabham’s sensational debut season in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires came to a close today with another dominant performance on the streets of Houston. Brabham made a clean sweep of the pair of Allied Building Products Grand Prix of Houston races on the temporary street circuit to set new milestones in the series, ending with records for most wins (13), most podiums (15) and most fastest laps (13) in a single season.

Brabham did not always make it easy on himself. Starting as far back as eighth at St. Petersburg – his worse starting position – he proved that he and his championship-winning Andretti Autosport team were up to any challenges.

Tonight Brabham will be presented with his Mazda Road to Indy champion’s prize package of a scholarship from Mazda worth over $636,000 to advance to Indy Lights competition next year. Brabham is the first driver to advance in succession on the ladder from the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda to Pro Mazda and now Indy Lights.

Brabham started on pole and drove off into the distance, at one time amassing a gap of over six seconds. Nicolas Costa, who started fourth, continued to impress with Team Pelfrey claiming back to back podiums this weekend with a second-place drive today. Juan Piedrahita of JDC MotorSports rounded out the podium – his fifth of the year – after starting fifth.

With his sixth-place finish today, Shelby Blackstock of Andretti Autosport secured third in the final standings.

Jay Horak of M1 Racing picked up his second win today to take the Expert Class championship title with M1 Racing.

Contingency awards included the Staubli Award and Quarter Master Hard Charger Award which went to Michele Bumgarner of World Speed Motorsports – making her debut with World Speed Motorsports this season in the #6 Mazda Philippines entry – for a gain of four positions, and the PFC Award to the winning team of Andretti Autosport.