Star Mazda - Horto Finishes Second at GP3R and Takes Third Consecutive Podium

TROIS-RIVIERES, August 6, 2011: J.V. Horto of Londrina, Brazil claimed his third consecutive podium with a second place finish in this afternoon's race on the Streets of Trois-Rivieres in Quebec. Horto started in second position and pushed hard in an attempt to take away the lead from Frenchman Tristan Vautier but wasn't quite able to catch him on the challenging circuit. He did, however, manage to hold off the rest of the field with ease as he rolled across the finish line in second.

J.V. Horto on the race: "It's been a great weekend so far. Today's results were really good, and we are now one step closer to being at the top in the championship. It's a very difficult track to pass on, and unfortunately I didn't get the pole because I got caught in traffic, but I'm still really happy to finish in second today. Tomorrow is another race, and I will be starting second for that, too, so it should be exciting!"

After today, Horto has improved his position in the overall championship to third, just one point behind Connor De Phillippi. Horto also scored the second fastest lap of the race today, meaning he will start tomorrow's race from second position as well (tomorrow's starting order is determined by fastest lap times from today's race).

Gustavo Menezes started today's race in sixth position, but lost two positions near the start of the race and dropped back to eighth. Fortunately, he was able to regain those lost positions during the race and end the day where he started, in sixth. Menezes also qualified sixth for tomorrow's race with the sixth fastest lap time in the field, seemingly making "six" the number of the day for the 16-year-old rookie.

Gustavo Menezes on the race: "It was a really difficult race. The track is definitely amazing, but it's also really hard to pass on, so I think everyone was struggling a bit with that. I had a lot of fun, though, and I was P6 in the end. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I was able to keep the pace and was one of the fastest guys in the end. I think that we learned a lot, as always, and we will be starting in the same place tomorrow, so we will definitely be pushing hard because tomorrow we want to be on the podium. I was able to improve to sixth in the championship, and there are still four races left, so we will see how tomorrow and the rest of the season goes."

Tatiana Calderon had a rough start to the weekend and didn't have her ideal qualifying session yesterday (she ended up ninth). During this afternoon's race, she was able to collect two positions and had made her way up to seventh. Unfortunately, the Colombian racer made a small mistake at turn six and lost control of her car, spinning around and backing her car into the tire wall. The early finish to her race caused her to be scored in 12th position. The good news is that Calderon, like her teammates, will be starting tomorrow's race in the same place that she started today's race, in ninth.

Tatiana Calderon on the race: "Today wasn't great for me. I think I had improved a lot from yesterday going into today's race, but unfortunately, I lost control of the rear of my car in turn six and crashed. There is still one more race to go this weekend, so I really want to do my best for that. I'm going to look over some information and try to correct anything I can so that I'm at my best for tomorrow's race."