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Sage Karam tops Star Mazda practice

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Karam Friday
Sage Karam

On a day turned chaotic by errant asphalt and intransigent railroad tracks, Sage Karam's 1:28.8 in the morning Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear session at the Grand Prix of Baltimore held up as the quickest lap of the day. His time was not recorded by the scoring system due to a transponder failure, but was verified by analysis of the footage from his on-board Replay XD camera.

The afternoon session, originally scheduled as a half-hour qualifying for Saturday's Race 1, was reduced to 15 minutes by delays for track repairs, and then further truncated to a total of four 'hot laps' as a result of red flags generated rated by spinning race cars.

Under those difficult conditions, it was Connor De Phillippi who turned the session's quick time of 1:29.650 in his #2 Juncos Racing / ModSpace Racing / One24 Mazda. Karam followed with a 1:29.682 in the #88 Andretti Autosport / Comfort Revolution Mazda and rounding out the top-3 was current championship points leader Jack Hawksworth with a 1:29.789 in the #82 Team Pelfrey / TORGOEN Swiss Watches / EXA Networks Mazda.

The day's schedule was already a shambles due to a paving problem over the railroad tracks on the back straight; the bump was sufficient to send cars flying and cause damage when they came back to earth – so the decision was made to try grinding it flatter. That reduced what was supposed to be a 30-minute qualifying session to 15 minutes and series officials made the call to consider the session 'practice only' and grid the cars for tomorrow's Race1 on the basis of points. As a result, Hawksworth will start from the inside of the front row, but will not get the championship point typically awarded to the winner of the PEAK Performance Pole Award. For Race 2 on Sunday, the standard procedure will be utilized, with the starting grid determined by the quickest lap turned by each car during Race 1.

"The track situation isn't ideal, obviously, but everyone has to deal with the same thing, so it's all a level playing field," observed De Phillippi. "The grinding they did didn't really fix the problem, so we're all going to be faced tomorrow during the race with a chicane that wasn't here today, but again it's something everyone has to deal with, so we're just going to focus on our car and our race and not let that throw us off our game. And I have to say, that other than the bump, the other changes that the event organizers have made to the track are all excellent; it's faster, safer and should make for a better race for the fans now and in future years."

Star Mazda on-track action at the Indy Grand Prix of Baltimore continues with Saturday's Race 1, scheduled for 30 minutes; cars will take the green light for the series' spectacular F1-style standing start 2:35 pm. Race 2, a 40 minute, takes the green at 11:35 am on Sunday, Sept 2.

Morning Session

Note: Quick lap of 1:28.8 was by Sage Karam; not recorded due to transponder failure

Pos No. Name Time Diff Gap Hometown Team
1 81 Petri Suvanto 1:29.045 0.000 0.000 Nurmo, Finland Pelfrey
2 82 Jack Hawksworth 1:29.185 0.140 0.140 West Yorkshire, England Pelfrey
3 2 Connor De Phillippi 1:29.911 0.866 0.726 San Clemente, CA Juncos Racing
4 77 Zach Veach 1:29.998 0.953 0.087 Stockdale, OH Andretti
5 83 Gustavo Menezes 1:30.156 1.111 0.158 Coto de Caza, CA Pelfrey
6 22 Martin Scuncio 1:30.667 1.622 0.511 Concepcion, Chile Juncos Racing
7 15 Bruno Palli 1:31.057 2.012 0.390 Maracay, Venezuela Juncos Racing
8 93 Stefan Rzadzinski 1:31.136 2.091 0.079 Edmonton, Canada JDC Motorsports
9 91 Ashley Freiberg 1:31.476 2.431 0.340 Homer Glen, IL JDC Motorsports
10 57 Diego Ferreira 1:31.847 2.802 0.371 Maracay, Venezuela Juncos Racing
11 20 Carlos Linares 1:31.978 2.933 0.131 Caracas, Venezuela Linares Racing
12 21 Camilo Schmidt 1:32.057 3.012 0.079 Merida, Venezuela Linares Racing
13 66 Zack Meyer 1:32.117 3.072 0.060 Toronto, Canada Aim Autosport
14 33 Ryan Tveter 1:32.195 3.150 0.078 Oyster Bay, NY Team GDT
15 19 Gabby Chaves 1:33.951 4.906 1.756 Bogota, Colombia JDC Motorsports
16 53 Andres Mendez 1:33.985 4.940 0.034 Bogota, Colombia Team GDT
17 23 Walt Bowlin 1:39.619 10.574 5.634 Tarpon Springs, FL Aim Autosport
18 9 Juan Piedrahita 14:06.015 12:36.970 12:26.396 Bogota, Colombia JDC Motorsports
19 88 Sage Karam – – – Nazareth, PA Andretti


Afternoon Session

Pos No. Name Time Diff Gap Hometown Team Laps
1 2 Connor De Phillippi 1:29.650 0.000 0.000 San Clemente, CA Juncos Racing 4
2 88 Sage Karam 1:29.682 0.032 0.032 Nazareth, PA Andretti 3
3 82 Jack Hawksworth 1:29.789 0.139 0.107 West Yorkshire, England Pelfrey 4
4 81 Petri Suvanto 1:30.025 0.375 0.236 Nurmo, Finland Pelfrey 4
5 22 Martin Scuncio 1:30.560 0.910 0.535 Concepcion, Chile Juncos Racing 3
6 15 Bruno Palli 1:30.936 1.286 0.376 Maracay, Venezuela Juncos Racing 3
7 83 Gustavo Menezes 1:31.146 1.496 0.210 Coto de Caza, CA Pelfrey 4
8 77 Zach Veach 1:31.405 1.755 0.259 Stockdale, OH Andretti 1
9 57 Diego Ferreira 1:31.426 1.776 0.021 Maracay, Venezuela Juncos Racing 3
10 20 Carlos Linares 1:32.865 3.215 1.439 Caracas, Venezuela Linares Racing 3
11 66 Zack Meyer 1:33.019 3.369 0.154 Toronto, Canada Aim Autosport 2
12 9 Juan Piedrahita 1:34.318 4.668 1.299 Bogota, Colombia JDC Motorsports 2
13 33 Ryan Tveter 1:34.327 4.677 0.009 Oyster Bay, NY Team GDT 2
14 93 Stefan Rzadzinski 1:35.993 6.343 1.666 Edmonton, Canada JDC Motorsports 3
15 19 Gabby Chaves 1:38.602 8.952 2.609 Bogota, Colombia JDC Motorsports 1
16 21 Camilo Schmidt 1:50.491 20.841 11.889 Merida, Venezuela Linares Racing 2
17 53 Andres Mendez 2:32.103 1:02.453 41.612 Bogota, Colombia Team GDT 2
18 23 Walt Bowlin 11:22.251 9:52.601 8:50.148 Tarpon Springs, FL Aim Autosport 1
19 91 Ashley Freiberg – – – Homer Glen, IL JDC Motorsports 0