Star Mazda - Calderon Readies For Night before the 500

Noblesville, May 26, 2011: Tatiana Calderon, North America’s top female junior formula car driver, heads to Indianapolis, Indiana to compete in the STAR Mazda Night Before the 500 race at Lucas Oil Raceway, all part of the Indy 500 week long celebrations. The 18-year-old resident of Bogotá, Columbia is coming off an outstanding oval test as she set the fourth quickest lap amongst the series top drivers. Calderon, a member of the Derek Daly Academy, is working through an intensive program of development all designed to position her for success. Calderon is competing in her second full season of Star Mazda Series with Juncos Racing.

“Tatiana is focusing on understanding the car technically and getting it to do what she needs it to do” comments Derek Daly Academy founder, Derek Daly. “She has a lot of raw talent and our concentration is to simply develop the full set of skills that will allow her to become the very best she can be”.

The Juncos Racing driver is coming off her best finish of her STAR Mazda career, taking third place at Barber Motorsports Park site of round two of the 11 round series that will cover road courses, street courses and ovals. Calderon sits inside the top ten in series points, just one point shy of a three way tie for third and two points out of sixth. The three race oval portion of the STAR Mazda program began with the recent test on May 21st on the Milwaukee Mile and will be followed by the Night Before the 500 at Lucas Oil Raceway May 27-28. The series heads back to the Milwaukee Mile and then Iowa Speedway for the third and final oval race.

“I am beginning to understanding the car at a much higher level and I want to learn everything possible as soon as possible in my quest to win” comments Calderon from Indianapolis. “I really like the Star Mazda series and look forward to the oval races because my Juncos team did a great job on ovals for the past two years”