Daly Wins Ninth Pole And Looks To Clinch Championship At Mosport

Bowmanville, August 28, 2010: Conor Daly won his ninth pole position of the season at Mosport International Raceway today, earning him yet another valuable point in the driver's championship and extending his lead to 70 points over Norwegian driver Anders Krohn. Daly also delivered the fastest lap time of the weekend on only his third lap in the qualifying session with a time of 1:15.342. The 18-year-old standout of the season now only needs to finish in the top 16 positions in today's race, and that's if Krohn should win this afternoon's event, to clinch the 2010 championship title.

"Starting on the pole makes things a lot better for me in today's race," said Daly. "I've been very fortunate to have so many pole positions this season, and that's really thanks to the Juncos Racing team. I'm really happy to start at the front, but I'm just going to focus on driving a consistent race considering there's a championship I could potentially clinch. I'm definitely going to do what I can to win, but I'm not going to take any unnecessary chances either."

Finishing 16th or better will see Daly leaving Mosport International Raceway at least 45 points ahead in the championship, consolidating his lead and confirming his win of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.

This weekend is teammate Tatiana Calderon's first experience at the high-speed 2.459-mile road course, and as a rookie to formula car racing, the fast corners of Mosport International Raceway that provide an adrenaline rush for veteran drivers can become intimidating for rookies. That being said, Calderon took on the 10-turn course with determination and improved her lap times by about three seconds over the course of three days. In the split qualifying session, Calderon ran as high as second quickest in her group and ended up fifth fastest. With the combined times of the 19 competitors this weekend, the 17-year-old Colombian woman's lap time will see her starting this afternoon's race in 14th position.

"Mosport is a really tough track for a rookie like me," said Calderon. "I really think I'm improving in the fast corners, though, and that's one point I've been working on all season. This track is made up of all fast corners, so I think I just need to trust the car more when race time comes. It will be a really good experience for me to run a race on this track, so I'm going to focus on finishing the whole thing incident-free."

Rusty Mitchell started this morning's session hot on the pursuit of a top-three qualifying result. Mitchell had already clocked in a seventh fastest lap time on only his second qualifying lap, just under his sixth place qualifying result at this track in 2009, before a mistake sent him off-track and halted the session. Though the young Texan hung on to his seventh quickest time until the session ended, his tires were far too damaged to compete in this afternoon's race, making it necessary to put on new ones before the race. According to the regulations, if a driver changes more than one tire after qualifying, that driver will have to start the race at the back of the grid-and unfortunately, that's where Mitchell will start.

"The car was really, really good," said Mitchell. "The guys worked really hard to get it just right. Unfortunately, I made a mistake during the qualifying session and missed the turn at turn two. The left side of the car got hooked on the curb, and I went off and made slight contact with the tire barrier. I'm disappointed because I know I had more in the car, but seventh wouldn't have been a bad place to start. Now that I have to start from the back, I will just concentrate on racing from there and gaining back some positions because I know I have the car to do that."

The action of Round 12 of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship will commence this afternoon at 1:15 p.m. EST. The event will be broadcast live on HDNet, thanks to the series' partnership with Visit Florida. Drivers will also resume competition in what will be Round Six of the Visit Florida Cup, a "championship within a championship" in which the winner receives a custom dream vacation in Florida. For more information, please go to www.juncosracing.com.