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Hawksworth Wins Star Mazda Pole #7 at Trois-Rivieres

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Jack Hawksworth collected his seventh PEAK Performance Pole Award of the 2012 season with a record-breaking run in his #82 Team Pelfrey / TORGOEN Swiss Watches / EXA Networks Mazda. On the 26th lap of the afternoon qualifying session for tomorrow's Race 1 of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at the 43rd annual GP3R, Hawksworth bettered the existing lap record of 1:01.341 – set in 2009 by Rusty Mitchell – with a time of 1:00.850.

His quick time was just .042 quicker than arch-rival Connor De Phillippi, who will – for the first time this season – start alongside Hawksworth on the front row in his #82 Team Pelfrey / TORGOEN Swiss Watches / EXA Networks Mazda. De Phillippi won Star Mazda Race 2 here last year, and this year is fourth in the championship with two wins, two poles and four podiums.

And starting immediately behind Hawksworth is yet another hungry championship contender, Sage Karam, with a lap of 1:01.134 in the #88 Andretti Autosport / Comfort Revolution Mazda. He finished 4th in Race 1 and 5th in Race 2 here last year, and went on to become the 2011 Rookie of the Year. He is currently third in the championship with one win, one pole and six podium finishes.

"It was a really tight qualifying and it's going to be a tight race… I'm hoping we all get through the first turn," said Hawksworth, with five wins, seven poles and eight fastest laps. "It's a really good thing for our race plan to be starting on the pole here, and to keep it on the start and re-starts. This is a really small track, though it's really well laid-out, and it requires a lot of precision, but the Pelfrey team keeps giving me really good cars, so we're well-positioned for tomorrow."

The 'ringer' in the field, two-time Trois-Rivieres race winner (2009 and 2010) Alex Ardoin, will start from 9th on the grid with a lap of 1:01.725 in the #51 Team GDT Mazda. This is his first race of the season, and he crashed early in practice, compromising his team's chances of finding the ideal setup for his car. Local driver, Jeremy Daniel, from Chateauguay, Quebec, qualified 18th, turning a 1:03.362 in his #10 The Racing Company / FixAuto / Sherwin-Williams Mazda.

Results

Pos No. Name Best Tm In Lap Diff Gap Team Laps
1 82 Jack Hawksworth 1:00.850 26 – – Pelfrey 33
2 2 Connor De Phillippi 1:00.892 26 0.042 0.042 Juncos Racing 28
3 88 Sage Karam 1:01.134 27 0.284 0.242 Andretti 31
4 83 Gustavo Menezes 1:01.245 23 0.395 0.111 Pelfrey 36
5 19 Gabby Chaves 1:01.409 30 0.559 0.164 JDC Motorsports 34
6 22 Martin Scuncio 1:01.422 23 0.572 0.013 Juncos Racing 33
7 77 Zach Veach 1:01.423 34 0.573 0.001 Andretti 35
8 81 Petri Suvanto 1:01.437 31 0.587 0.014 Pelfrey 35
9 51 Alex Ardoin 1:01.727 13 0.877 0.290 GDT 24
10 57 Diego Ferreira 1:01.791 25 0.941 0.064 Juncos Racing 27
11 15 Bruno Palli 1:01.872 25 1.022 0.081 Juncos Racing 26
12 9 Juan Piedrahita 1:02.098 17 1.248 0.226 JDC Motorsports 26
13 20 Carlos Linares 1:02.255 30 1.405 0.157 Linares Racing 31
14 33 Ryan Tveter 1:02.498 20 1.648 0.243 Team GDT 20
15 91 Ashley Freiberg 1:02.628 20 1.778 0.130 JDC Motorsports 34
16 53 Andres Mendez 1:02.797 20 1.947 0.169 Team GDT 30
17 66 Zack Meyer 1:02.926 23 2.076 0.129 Aim Autosport 32
18 10 Jeremy Daniel 1:03.362 13 2.512 0.436 TRC 31

Star Mazda on-track action at the GP3R at Trois-Rivi̬res continues with Saturday's Race 1, scheduled for 45 minutes; the grid will take the green light for the series' spectacular F1-style standing start 1:20 pm Р2:10 pm 45 minutes on Saturday, August 4. Race 2, also a 45-minute contest with the starting grid determined by each car's fastest lap on Race 1, takes the green at 11:00 am on Sunday, August 5.

Star Mazda Championship cars all carry two Replay XD1080 cameras to provide exciting driver POV footage for races that are part of the Mazda Motorsports Hour broadcast tape-delayed on Discovery's Velocity Channel in the U.S. and globally on ESPN International. In the U.S., the race will air on Velocity at 12 Noon, Saturday, September 1. In Canada, the Mazda Motorsports Hour airs on Rogers Sports Net; please check your local listings for date and time, or go to http://www.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule.