Star Mazda - Team GDT's Mendez Finishes 13th At Toronto

TORONTO, Jul. 10, 2012: Only seven of the 18 laps completed in the 30-minute time allotment for Round 8 of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear were run under green-flag conditions Sunday at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Unfortunately Team GDT’s Corey Lewis and Ryan Tveter were both victims of separate accidents early in the race. The third driver for the Dallas-based team here, Andrés Méndez, finished unscathed in 13th position.

Méndez, of Bogotá, Colombia, started 15th on Sunday in Team GDT’s No. 53, which is sponsored by DataFile Internacional S.A. and Grupo Kriterion. He dropped to 16th initially but moved to 13th on lap two after his teammates ran into problems and he passed Zach Meyer.

He dipped back to 14th on lap 10 when Meyer got him back. He lost another position on lap 11 when Carlos Linares passed him to put him back in the same position where he started. Méndez regained 14th on lap 12 when Stefan Rzadzinski dropped back and 13th on the very last lap when Linares dropped out. His fastest race lap was lap 17 of 18.

Two drivers who lost differentials in Saturday’s race, Sage Karam and Team GDT’s Ryan Tveter, started at the rear of the field on Sunday. The plan for Tveter, a rookie in the series from Oyster Bay, N.Y., was to try to follow Karam, who is in his second year in this series and won the most recent race.

That strategy worked perfectly initially. Tveter had an excellent standing start and advanced from 20th to 15th spot on the first lap when he passed Walt Bowlin, Linares, Jerimy Daniel and Méndez, and Lewis dropped out due to contact. Unfortunately before the yellow came out for Lewis’s accident Tveter was in the wall too, as his Rogers TV and Motorola Mobility Canada car impacted the wall in Turn 11 on lap two. Had he been able to continue to follow Karam he might have had a top-five finish, as Karam went on to place third.

Lewis, of Nazareth, Pa., started 12th but only completed one lap after another driver rear-ended his No. 39 in Turn 2. Lewis’s car, which is sponsored by Team GDT, the Monticello Motor Club, Raceseng, Bell Helmets and Troy Boiler Works, became airborne and then impacted the wall to make matters worse.

Luckily no one was hurt in any of the accidents.

Jack Hawksworth won Sunday’s race just like he did on Saturday. Juan Piedrahita finished second Sunday.

Highlights of the Toronto doubleheader will be shown on the Mazda Motorsports Hour at noon on Saturday, Aug. 4 on the Velocity network in the United States.

The team now heads to Edmonton, Alberta for another doubleheader July 20-22.

Further information can be found on the team’s Facebook page. The team also has a Twitter account @TeamGDT. The series’ Web site is at StarMazda.com.

Driver quotes follow:

Andres Méndez: “I almost had contact with someone, but no, I didn’t have contact with anyone today. We stayed out of any problems and finished, which is always my first goal.

“It was a crazy race.

“I’d never been to this track before and it was a learning experience. The grip of the car changed depending on whether the surface of the track was concrete or asphalt.

“I want to thank Team GDT for working so hard to repair my car from my crash on Saturday. They had to spend many long hours on Saturday night to get it ready for Sunday morning’s race.

“I also want to thank all my sponsors too.

“We’ll go on and work hard to get a good result in Edmonton.”

Ryan Tveter: “I’m not sure exactly what happened; we’ll have to look at the video. My plan was to follow Sage. It worked for awhile. He cleared the way. I had some contact on the first lap when I was passing cars, and then my accident happened in the last turn — Turn 11. I hit the wall, but the car isn’t too bad. I lost the front end and a few suspension pieces.

“I got a good standing start. It just wasn’t our weekend.

“I want to thank Team GDT for all their hard work. I also want to thank my sponsors: Rogers TV and Motorola Mobility Canada. I want to thank the Rogers TV crew that is doing a documentary on us here. They were great. I didn’t feel any pressure at all.

“We’ll go on from here and hope for better luck at Edmonton.”

Corey Lewis: “I got launched into the wall in Turn 2 by Zack Meyer. He punted me. I got airborne and went into the wall.

“It’s a big bill, and it’s very frustrating. It’s not how I wanted my Star Mazda debut to go.

“I hope to be able to find sponsors for more races, but we’ll have to see.”