Northwest Autosport driver Eric Freiberg has served notice that he will be a driver to contend with for the remainder of the season after another strong showing, running in the top three for a time, and finishing eighth in Round Seven of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear on the Exhibition Center street circuit in Toronto, Canada during the Champ Car Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto weekend.
“This was an exciting weekend for everyone at Northwest Autosport as things have just clicked with myself, the team and my driver coach Chuck West, ” the twenty-one year old native of Homer Glen, Illinois, explained. “We unloaded from the trailer and were third fastest in the opening session, and while we went backwards a bit during qualifying we hit the race setup perfectly and were part of a three car train pulling away from the field before the caution flags came into play. ”
Lining up eleventh on the grid in the #3 CDE Collision Damage Experts Pro Formula Mazda, Freiberg was quickly up front battling with championship points leader Dane Cameron and Portland race winner Devin Cunnigham. After building a gap on the rest of the competitors the field would be bunched up repeatedly by five caution periods. “The caution periods haunted us today, ” Freiberg lamented. “On the first restart Cameron, Cunningham and myself all went as deep as we dared into the first corner and as we slid through I had to check up slightly and a car was able to get around on the outside of the corner. On the second restart contact with Marco Di Leo damaged my front wing and made it a challenge holding positions. ”
With the finish Freiberg now sits thirteenth in the championship with 144 points and hopes to gain more pending the appeal of his exclusion from the previous round of the championship at Cleveland where he finished fourth on the track.
Fellow Northwest Autosport competitor Phil Fogg Junior, currently second in the Expert Series points standings, encountered the challenging side of street circuit racing as he got caught out by cold tires and a temporary street circuit surface on the opening pace lap, making contact with a barrier and ending his race prematurely. “I’m disappointed that things ended the way they did as I think the car would’ve been really good during the race, ” the Portland, Oregon based driver said. “I was getting the car warmed up and just got into the corner a little to hot, got caught by the slick cement and couldn’t save it. ”
Star Mazda races are broadcast tape-delayed on SPEED TV, with the Toronto race scheduled to air on Saturday, July 21 at 12:00 pm with a re-broadcast on Monday, July 23 at 3:00 pm. The next event on the Star Mazda schedule is at Road America, with the American Le Mans Series, on August 10 – 11.
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