Star Mazda - Juncos Looking to Regain Title In 2012

Brownsburg, December 13, 2011: Following news of Juncos Racing's move to Indianapolis and expansion into the Firestone Indy Lights Series, the team is more fired up than ever to regain the championship title in the 2012 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.

Juncos Racing won its first ever Star Mazda Championship in 2010 with Mazda Road to Indy driver Conor Daly and along the way, broke every record in the book including most pole positions (9) and podiums (12) won in a single season and the tie for most races won in a single season (7). Now going into its fourth season of competition in American formula car racing, the thriving young team is determined to claim its second series title in 2012.

Longtime employee and associate Ernesto Gonella will continue in his role as Lead Engineer for the Star Mazda Champions. Gonella has been an integral part of the team's success since day one; his expertise has allowed Juncos Racing to win races, poles, and podiums in every season to date, and the team intends to keep that winning momentum going into 2012 and beyond.

Team Owner, Ricardo Juncos: "Knowing that we are taking a big step adding a Firestone Indy Lights team into our program, it is even more important than ever for us to keep the strong crew members we have on our Star Mazda Championship team. The relationship I have with Ernie (Gonella) is great, and I'm so happy that he will be doing exactly the same role on the team as he has since the start, our Lead Engineer.

"We will be announcing the incorporation of another engineer to work alongside Ernie soon. The addition of another engineer will really help Ernie focus on the team and driver championship next season like we did in 2010.

"We are currently still in the driver testing process for 2012, and we will be announcing the Juncos Racing drivers soon. Now that we are going into our fourth season of competition in the Star Mazda Championship and have been able to prove ourselves as a team, we are really confident that we will be fighting for our second championship title in 2012."