![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TeamGDTLogo.jpg\" "\\"TeamGDTLogo\\"")
SALINAS, Calif., Sept. 6 \u2014 Team GDT\u2019s rookies in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear took their first laps of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during a test day Thursday in preparation for a doubleheader there on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
Andres M\u00e9ndez of Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, and Ryan Tveter, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., are representing the Dallas-based team at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course this year. They\u2019re depending on the team\u2019s engineers, veterans Eric Purcell and Remi Lanteigne, and its driver coach, Chuck West, to help them get acclimated to the track as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
M\u00e9ndez drives the No. 53 sponsored by DataFile Internacional S.A. and Grupo Kriterion. Tveter drives the No. 33 sponsored by CIMIER Swiss Watches and Motorola Mobility, LLC.<\/p>\n
\u201cMazda Raceway Laguna Seca is very demanding and challenging, but it’s an incredible thrill to drive,\u201d said Tveter Thursday after his first 30-minute test session.\u00a0 \u201cThe steep elevation changes and very fast turns require a lot more rhythm than the street circuits, where the surface changes slow you down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s really great to have the Promoter\u2019s Test Day,\u201d he added.\u00a0 \u201cThat track time is so valuable. My goal this weekend is to continue to build my race craft and learn some new skills, since I have not raced on a permanent track in Star Mazda before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s really great to be at Laguna Seca,\u201d he added.\u00a0 \u201cMy mom is from California. We drove by here every spring break on our way to Carmel. I love this area and it will be nice to have friends and family at my races this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
A year ago Patrick McKenna of Dublin, Ireland finished fourth at this event driving for Team GDT.\u00a0 He missed the podium by just 0.278 of a second but he was 2.217 seconds ahead of last year\u2019s series champion, Tristan Vautier, the current Firestone Indy Lights point leader.\u00a0 J.W. Roberts of Dallas, who owns Team GDT, won the Expert class here last year with another Team GDT driver, Dom Bastien of West Palm Beach, Fla., second in that division.<\/p>\n
Although Tveter has vacationed in the area, it\u2019s all new to M\u00e9ndez. He enjoyed a whale-watching expedition on Monterey Bay with other Team GDT members on Tuesday before tackling Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the first time on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s test day schedule offered three 30-minute test sessions for the Star Mazda series, which is part of the official Mazda Road to Indy program.<\/p>\n
There is one 30-minute practice session on Friday at 8:35 a.m. Qualifying for the Peak Performance pole follows at 1:55 p.m. that afternoon. That session will determine the starting line-up for Saturday\u2019s race.\u00a0 Sunday\u2019s starting line-up will be determined by each driver\u2019s fastest race lap on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s race is at 5:20 p.m. and Sunday\u2019s gets the green flag at 3:30 p.m. All times are local.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s race has a 30-minute window on the schedule and Sunday\u2019s has a 45-minute window. Last year\u2019s race saw the winner complete 28 lap in 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Star Mazda action is part of a Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series weekend called the Continental Tire Sports Car Festival Powered by Mazda.<\/p>\n
Live timing and scoring of the Star Mazda action is available throughout the weekend via Starmazda.com and the Race Monitor app. The races will also be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on Discovery\u2019s Velocity Network, Canada\u2019s Rogers SportsNet and ESPN International. In the United States the race will air at noon Eastern on Saturday, Oct. 13. Broadcast times for other countries are listed on the series\u2019 Website.<\/p>\n
Fans can learn more about Team GDT on its Facebook page or through Twitter @TeamGDT.<\/p>\n
Both 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.<\/p>\n
Following this race there is a series test on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oct. 10-11 prior to the season finale at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta Oct. 17-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SALINAS, Calif., Sept. 6 \u2014 Team GDT\u2019s rookies in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear took their first laps of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca […]<\/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":[22,3,61,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-racing-news","category-upcoming-events"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13667","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=13667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13670,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13667\/revisions\/13670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}