AIM Autosport driver Natacha Gachnang earned her second-consecutive podium finish in the Star Mazda Championship with third place in the series race in Cleveland on Sunday. Her teammate, Devin Cunningham of St-Bruno, Qué., finished eighth.
Gachnang, of St-Gingolph, Switzerland, started the No. 35 Pro Formula Mazda 10th on the 23-car grid with a qualifying lap of one minute 10.414 seconds on the 2.106-mile Burke Lakefront Airport temporary circuit. She spun on the first race lap and dropped back to 16th, but quickly regained five positions, then charged to fourth on a race restart. She earned one more position on a second restart to finish third.
Cunningham’s qualifying effort was hampered by a problem with the wiring harness in his No. 33 Discovery Channel Canada Mazda. He started the race 14th (1:11.018) and blasted to seventh on the first lap, but lost two positions when he was caught behind a multi-car crash on the first restart. He was credited with eighth place when another competitor was disqualified.
“It was crazy, ” Gachnang said of the first restart. “I was expecting something at the first corner, so I went inside [the turn] and I was fourth. Then we had another pace car. I went inside again and I was third. You have to choose the right way to go – I chose to go inside because I knew it was more safe. I think it was the right choice! “
Cunningham’s race wasn’t as smooth.
“It was up and down. I only had 10 laps before I got into the race, ” he noted. “It was going great ‘til we came up on a restart. There was a huge accident next to me, so the only thing I could do was park the car and wait. If I’d got through, I would have been with Natacha. But due to what happened at the restart, I’m very happy to finish ninth. “
A home race is next for the AIM team – the July 7 Star Mazda Championship race during the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto.
