Juncos Racing Focused on Race after Unlucky Qualifying Session in Sebring

SEBRING, March 18, 2010: With a new season, new drivers and a new set of tire rules, Juncos Racing was prepared for the first qualifying session of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear this morning. Conor Daly set the fastest lap in the in the #22 Juncos Racing / INDECK / College Network / Merchant Services Ltd. / Tom Lange Co. car during the final practice session yesterday with a time of 1:57.600 and was determined to do it again today. Luck, however, was not on his side today though he still qualified fourth with a time of 1:58.782 and will happily start tomorrow's race on the second row of the grid.

"I had a lot of unfortunate luck today," said Daly. "A couple of cars spun in front of me affecting my lap times, but overall I think we will still be okay for tomorrow. The car is great, and we've been working hard all week to get it perfect for the race. I started this race in 16th position last year and finished third, so I'm confident with driving on this track and ready to get back out there tomorrow for the race."

Tatiana Calderon has continued to improve with each on-track session and even showed signs that she could potentially qualify in the top ten positions. Unfortunately, bad luck also struck the young Colombian driver on lap three of qualifying when she spun in turn one and was unable to finish the session.

"I'm not sure what caused me to spin," said Calderon. "As I was going into turn one, it just seemed to happen so suddenly, so I need to review my onboard video and see what mistakes I made before the race tomorrow. Once I had crashed, I couldn't go back out, so I didn't get to finish the session and qualify properly which means I will start at the back of the field. I hope tomorrow will be better, though, and we can get back up to where we've been all week."

Hayden Duerson ran as high as 11th position during the qualifying session showing promising results for the race, but the Star Mazda Championship rookie miscalculated his tire strategy causing him to miss being able to fight for speed when the track was fastest at the end of the session.

"I changed my tires too early in the session," said Duerson. "The track was fastest at the end, and by then I had already been driving on that set of tires for a while. I was really happy to run as high as 11th at one point during the session, though, so I'm looking forward to my first Star Mazda race tomorrow and ready to see what I can do."