Road America Next Stop for Hacquard

Vancouver, Canada (August 05, 2008) – A busy August kicks off for Vancouver’s Taylor Hacquard with Round 6 of the 2008 Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear stopping at Elkhart Lake and the renowned Road America circuit, Thursday 7th – Saturday 9th August.

The sweeping 4.08-mile Wisconsin road course immediately precedes a two-leg Canadian tour with Rounds 7 and 8 hosted at Trois Rivieres in Quebec (Sunday 17th) and Mosport International Raceway in Ontario (Sunday 23rd) respectively. While naturally excited to race twice on home soil in his rookie season, piloting the #15 Wolfe Auto Group/World Speed Motorsports entry, Hacquard’s focus is set firmly on the task in hand this weekend.

The 18-year-old arrives at Road America off the back of a pair of top-ten’s at Portland International Raceway a fortnight ago, including a career-best fifth place finish in Round 4. Taylor’s impressive start to the season, which now totals four top-ten finishes from five race starts, sees him sitting eighth overall in the Driver Standings from a highly competitive and truly international Star Mazda field.

Supporting the American Le Mans Series for the third time this year, the Star Mazda Championship’s Road America event will no doubt prove to be as fiercely contested as the previous five rounds. Four different drivers have enjoyed a champagne shower from the top-step of the podium this season with Atlantic Championship refugee, John Edwards, the only repeat winner to-date.

“I’m keen to get back to Road America having tested there for the first time a few weeks ago,” Hacquard stated. “We get a bunch of running time this weekend which is always beneficial as it will allow me to build on the track knowledge I gained from last month’s test. All the turns at Road America roll together and it’s a fairly fast, sweeping circuit, not too dissimilar in character to Portland International Raceway where we last raced but with a few more elevation changes!

“Portland allowed me to get back into a rhythm and I qualified just outside the top-ten for both starts. I’m hoping Road America will see me back inside the first five rows and quickly into a groove in the race. I made a pair of decent starts in Portland, I was concentrating on getting everything right and it paid off allowing me to gain position and keep my nose clean. I’m learning something each time I’m out in the car at the moment and I know experience counts for a lot. It was good to get a top-five finish at the last event and I’m hoping for more of the same this weekend.”

Qualifying for Round 6 of the 2008 Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear gets underway on Friday 8th August at 4:05pm CT with the 45-minute race held the following day, Saturday 9th August, starting at 2:25pm CT – www.starmazda.com / www.roadamerica.com

SPEED will broadcast Round 6 from Road America as a tape-delay on Saturday 23rd August starting at Noon ET – www.speedtv.com

2008 Top-8 Star Mazda Drivers – R5/12: 1st Joel Miller (179pts), 2nd Charles Hall (174pts), 3rd Alex Ardoin (168pts), 4th Billy Goshen (155pts), 5th Tom Gladdis (150pts), 6th Peter Dempsey (140pts), 7th John Edwards (136pts), 8th TAYLOR HACQUARD (135pts)