Another Podium Finish for Conor Daly at Grand Prix Trois-Rivieres, Mitchell and Calderon Claim More Top-Ten Results

Trois-Rivieres, August 16, 2010: In a race filled with overtaking, yellow flags and challenging track conditions, Conor Daly battled with the competition at the front of the field to gain yet another podium finish for himself in the 2010 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. Daly has only finished outside the top three positions once this season in 10 total rounds thus far, his other result being fourth place at race two in New Jersey Motorsports Park on June 27.

The 18-year-old started this afternoon's race from the pole position for the seventh time this year and was immediately challenged for the lead by the #47 car of Anders Krohn who successfully overtook Daly on lap one. Daly continued to chase Krohn in an effort to regain his lost position, but a caution only several laps into the race caused the action at the front of the field to pause momentarily. Once the green flag fell again, it was Alex Ardoin, who joined GDT Motorsports for this weekend only, who came from third position to overtake Daly for second position.

Both Ardoin and Daly were then able to pass Krohn for first and second position where they stayed for the majority of the race. While pushing Ardoin for the winning spot, Daly spun on the final lap and lost his second place position, ultimately crossing the finish line in third position and being awarded second place points for the driver's championship.

"I have to first thank the Juncos Racing team for working hard all week," said Daly. "We had a lot of work on our hands with three cars, but we had a good weekend all around. We started on the pole, but some unfortunate things happened during the race. I had a good start, but there wasn't a lot of grip on the track going into turn one, and I ran too wide, causing me to drop back to second place. I tried to run the race from there and had a good fight with the top three drivers. In the end, we came up with a third place finish and second place points, so that's great for the championship. Now, I'm ready for Road America next weekend."

After a rough start to the weekend with his second engine change since Iowa Speedway in June, Rusty Mitchell turned out a solid race at the historic Trois-Rivieres street circuit where he won his first and sole career pole position in 2009. Mitchell was able to overtake cars and stay out of trouble when it arose throughout the 45-minute event, ultimately crossing the finish line in eighth position and scoring seventh place points.

"I really want to thank the guys on Juncos Racing first for working so hard through a frustrating weekend," said Mitchell. "They got my engine changed in time for the race, once again, and worked really hard to get my car ready to go again. This track is a lot of fun, and it was a really smooth race for me in which I had some great battles with other drivers. I'm now looking forward to taking on Road America next weekend."

Teammate Tatiana Calderon bounced back from a rough qualifying session yesterday to deliver respectable results in today's race. Calderon worked her way up through the field-as she has become accustomed to, it seems-and clocked in a fastest lap time that was a mere .4 off the fastest car on the track, despite her having problems with high engine temperatures. The 17-year-old rookie crossed the finish line right behind Rusty Mitchell in ninth place and was awarded eighth place points for the championship.

"The start of the race was crazy for me," said Calderon. "It was difficult to pass at first because there were so many cars crammed together, and then my engine temperature started getting too high. I pulled it together, though, and I think I was really consistent at the end. I was only .4 off the fastest lap time so I was really happy. The car was set up really well for this track, so I think Juncos Racing proved again what a fantastic team they are."

Mitchell and Calderon each gained five track positions in today's race. Neither driver has finished a race outside the top ten positions since race two at New Jersey Motorsports Park on June 27, clearly showing their improvement throughout the 2010 season and their potential as front runners.

"It was a difficult weekend for us," said Team Owner Ricardo Juncos. "We didn't have a lot of time to work on the cars in between sessions, especially with the late session on Friday night and the early session on Saturday morning. Regardless, we are continuing to pull away in the driver's championship which is so incredible. I'm so happy with the whole team.

"We had a lot of issues with Rusty's car this weekend. We had to change the engine after qualifying yesterday afternoon, but fortunately everything worked out fine. Rusty had a good warm-up session this morning and ended up finishing really well in the race. It was a hard track to pass on, but he worked as hard as he could to do so and improved throughout the race, so thankfully everything turned around for the better.

"Tatiana also improved in every session this weekend, as she normally does. She was overdriving the car a little bit in qualifying, but in the race, she was only .4 off of the leader's fastest lap time which was amazing. She learned a lot this weekend and did really well for herself as well as the team.

"Conor had a tough race today. Once he lost the lead, he had trouble regaining it. He had some braking problems which isn't good at this track especially because the corners are so tight. He still finished on the podium again, though, which is truly impressive. He got some great points for the championship, too, so we are really happy about that. As always, we are looking forward to the race next weekend in Road America."