Juncos Racing Advances to Atlanta with Two Championship Leads

VERO BEACH, September 19, 2009: With only two races remaining in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, the Florida-based debut team of Juncos Racing will continue on to Round 12 at Atlanta next week with not only one, but two Championship leads to its name. In the Team Championship Points Standings, Juncos Racing is now tied with AIM Autosport for third place with 195 points, sitting just behind the veteran teams of JDC Motorsports and Andersen Racing.

Irishman Peter Dempsey, 23, has won an astonishing four out of the 11 races that have taken place in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship season thus far, earning him the well-suited nickname, "The Irish Steamroller". With 399 points, he is currently leading the overall Championship by seven points to Adam Christodoulou of JDC Motorsports. Last year at Road Atlanta, Dempsey was leading the Championship when he set a record lap time of 1:18.328 in qualifying and put his car on pole, but contact at the end of the race left him with a disappointing result of 19th position, damaging his chances for winning the 2008 Star Mazda Championship. This year, Dempsey is determined to prove what he can do on this track by rewriting last year's bad luck with a win.

"I am really looking forward to getting back to Road Atlanta", says Dempsey. "This is the track I like the most in the U.S.A. I qualified on pole here last year and should have had a better race. We had a successful test here a few weeks ago after Mosport and gathered a lot of setup data. I really feel like we are going to this race 100% ready for it. I expect a strong showing for us and hopefully we can consolidate our points lead."

Juncos Racing's newest team member is Japanese driver Toshihiro Deki who joined the team at Mosport in August where he immediately rewarded them with a win in the Expert Series Class (for drivers ages 30-44). In his premiere Star Mazda Championship season, Deki has consistently finished in the top-two in his class for the past ten races, and Juncos Racing is thrilled to add him to the team for the remainder of the 2009 season. With 172 points, Deki now has an impressive 24 point advantage over fellow Expert Series driver, Chris Cumming of World Speed Motorsports, placing him first in his class and 15th overall.