{"id":13421,"date":"2012-08-30T04:08:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T04:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=13421"},"modified":"2012-08-30T04:08:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T04:08:51","slug":"team-gdts-mendez-and-tveter-want-to-record-good-showings-at-baltimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/team-gdts-mendez-and-tveter-want-to-record-good-showings-at-baltimore\/","title":{"rendered":"Team GDT\u2019s M\u00e9ndez and Tveter Want to Record Good Showings at Baltimore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"BALTIMORE, Aug. 29 \u2014 As summer traditionally draws to a close on Labor Day weekend, students all over America are wishing for just a little more vacation time. \u00a0Young people who have spent the summer training to be professional race car drivers want more time too, whether they\u2019re going back to school or not. They want to earn as many points as possible in the 2012 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear before the season ends in October. Drivers in this Mazda Road to Indy series, including Team GDT\u2019s two rookies, Andres M\u00e9ndez and Ryan Tveter, need good showings this weekend in the Star Mazda doubleheader at the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT, as only two more events remain after this weekend. \u00a0They face a jam-packed schedule in Baltimore.\u00a0 They\u2019ll have just 30 minutes of track time at 8:40 a.m. Friday morning before qualifications are held at 1:55 p.m. that afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

M\u00e9ndez, of Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, and Tveter, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., will try to use those 30 minutes of practice wisely.
\nGetting acclimated to the 2.02-mile, 12-turn track quickly and arriving at a comfortable set-up for their cars will be crucial as they prepare for their races at 2:35 p.m. Saturday and 11:35 a.m. on Sunday.\u00a0 Saturday\u2019s race is slated for 30 minutes and Sunday\u2019s is scheduled to last 40 minutes.\u00a0 The starting grid for Sunday\u2019s race will be determined by each driver\u2019s fastest race lap on Saturday.\u00a0 The series features standing starts.
\nM\u00e9ndez, who drives the No. 53 sponsored by DataFile Internacional S.A. and Grupo Kriterion, has never been to Baltimore before this week. He\u2019s coming off his best finish ever in the series with a seventh-place finish at Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Quebec, earlier this month.
\nTveter, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., had his best finish of the season to date during the Canadian swing too when he placed fifth at Edmonton, Alberta in July. He drives the No. 33.\u00a0 He\u2019s welcoming a new marketing partner for the balance of the season in the Swiss watchmaker CIMIER.\u00a0 He\u2019s also sponsored by Motorola Mobility, LLC.
\nBoth of Team GDT\u2019s rookies are trying their best to learn as much as possible this season.\u00a0 They both finished in the top 10 at the most recent race. They also both advanced eight positions from where they started on the grid in that race, which was more than any other driver.
\nM\u00e9ndez has been forced to learn how to size up a track quickly this year.\u00a0 He\u2019s never competed in any event at any of the tracks he\u2019s raced on during his 2012 Star Mazda campaign.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s my first time in Baltimore, like all my races this season,\u201dhe confirmed.\u00a0 \u201cSince the Canadian swing I\u2019ve been working really hard at home on sponsor acquisition, training in go-karts and the simulator for our upcoming race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and on my fitness program, which includes a regular workout, mixed martial arts training and other sports that I compete in. It was a lot of fun as well as work, but now it\u2019s time to go back to the office \u2014 my race car.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to be on the track.\u00a0 I want to keep moving forward and get two good results in Baltimore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tveter, who started his freshman year at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., on Monday, competed in two USF2000 races at last year\u2019s Baltimore Grand Prix and he had good results in both of them.\u00a0 He started 19th in the first one and finished tenth. He started 14th in the second race and placed eighth.
\n\u201cThe Baltimore street circuit is one of the few places I\u2019m racing at in Star Mazda this year that I\u2019ve seen before,\u201d Tveter said.\u00a0 \u201cThat will help, because there isn\u2019t much track time.\u00a0 We only have one practice session, so getting up to speed quickly will be very important.
\nOne chicane has been removed from the course this year.
\n\u201cI think the track is cool,\u201d Tveter added.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging circuit and it\u2019s a really cool event to be racing at the Inner Harbor and seeing all the fans who come out to this race.\u201d
\nMore than 100,000 fans attended this event last year, according to the event\u2019s Website at 2012BaltimoreGrand Prix.com.\u00a0 The temporary street circuit runs from the Inner Harbor to Camden Yards and also passes the Baltimore Convention Center.\u00a0 ESPN proclaimed\u00a0 last year\u2019s event was the best inaugural street race in America in the last 30 years.
\nThe Baltimore Star Mazda races will be broadcast on the Mazda Motorsports Hour on the Velocity network at noon on Saturday, Sept. 29.\u00a0 The teams will try to find a cable TV set before Saturday\u2019s race too, as the Trois-Rivi\u00e8res coverage is scheduled to air on the same network at noon this Saturday.
\nFans can learn more about Team GDT on its Facebook page or through Twitter @TeamGDT.
\nBoth M\u00e9ndez and Tveter also have Facebook and Twitter accounts. M\u00e9ndez\u2019s Website is at agM\u00e9ndez.com and Tveter\u2019s is at RyanTveter.com. \u00a0The series\u2019 Website is at StarMazda.com.\u00a0 A link to live timing and scoring is included on the latter site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE, Aug. 29 \u2014 As summer traditionally draws to a close on Labor Day weekend, students all over America are wishing for just a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-upcoming-events"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13421"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13426,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13421\/revisions\/13426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}