Ron White rolls to victory at Mosport International Raceway

Courtesy Eric McCombs

September 2, 2006. Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada - With the remnants of tropical storm Ernesto sweeping across the track, Ron White, of Santa Clara, California, pulled off a last lap pass for the second consecutive race weekend to capture his second victory of the year in Round Ten of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at Mosport International Raceway. Joining White on the podium after the soggy event were Gerardo Bonilla, who had led most of the race, and Michael Potekhen.

Making his second start of the season for the newly formed Ross Smith Racing, White slid his way from eighth on the grid in the #69 Ross Smith Racing Maxwell Paper Products Mazda to battle Bonilla wheel-to-wheel through the last lap of the race, edging out the victory by 0.540 seconds. "I didn't even see the white flag for the final lap but saw that I was just a little bit better than Gerardo through the turn five and six section," White explained. "I got a good run through the corner and got a good draft off of him and tried to use sixth gear as we came down to turn eight. I didn't lift until I had to at the last minute and I was ahead."

Despite narrowly missing out on his second victory of the season, Bonilla was still satisfied with the race results after leading most of the event, "Ron White was really fast in the turn five complex and that was my weakest point so on the final lap I saw him coming up on me there and we both went into the corner excited and slid around a bit," Bonilla, pilot of the #9 Andersen Racing Team Skip Barber Mazda revealed. "We exited the corner side-by-side and were side-by-side down the entire back straight and then we went into turn eight both thinking we were going to win. Ron was able to edge out just a bit and I backed out as I figured second place was better than a crash. after all the work Andersen Racing Team has done for me."

Potekhen, driving the #53 Apex Racing Avenue Communities Mazda,was in the thick of the action all race long moving into third place early and watched first Charles Anti then Logan Gomez take over the position and then hand it back by spinning off the track in the slick conditions. "It was nasty out there today as you couldn't see anything and the track was really slick. It was like sticking your head out the widow of a car in blizzard when you're trying to drive 120 miles per hour," the Tempe, Arizona resident said. "Ron was able to get by with a good run on me coming onto the back straight when my traction control kicked in but we had a good car today and it feels good to be up front today."

With two races left in the 2006 campaign Adrian Carrio, who started on pole for the event in the #14 World Speed Motorsport Rockford Fosgate Mazda remains in first place after a seventh place finish, watching his lead slip slightly to 41 points over second place competitor Kevin Lacroix, who finished two spots ahead of him in fifth place. Ryan Justice sits in third place with 293 points overall after finishing in sixth place.

In the Expert Championship, for drivers aged 30-44, Bonilla earns the class victory and remains out front in the class championship with 176 points while Brian Thienes holds second place in his #77 JDC Motorsports Thienes Engineering Mazda with 138 points and Dan Tomlin III maintains third place with 130 points in the #56 Team Tomlin Mazda.

In the Masters Championship, for drivers aged 45 and older, Doug Peterson, driving the #87 American Speed Factory 3-Dimensional Services Mazda captured the class victory, finishing twelfth overall and sits on top of the class championship with 151 points. John Faulkner drove his #93 Phenom Racing Group Mazda to second in the class finishing seventeenth overall and climbs to second place with 133 points. Ken Losch drops from second to third in the class 132 points after finishing fourth in class in the #52 Apex Racing Avenue Communities Mazda.

In the Team Championship John Walko Racing climbs into first place with 192 points, World Speed Motorsports drops one spot to second place with 189 points and Apex Racing holds third place with 154 points.

The series now heads to Braselton, Georgia, for the penultimate round of the championship at the world renowned Road Atlanta circuit alongside the American Le Mans Series at the Petit Le Mans weekend on September 27-29. Round Ten of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is scheduled to air on Speed Channel at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 9th. For more information please visit www.starmazda.com.