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| QUALIFYING AND RACE - PORTLAND, OR.
RACE RESULTS A Bad day in Oregon for Charles... "It happened in the first corner of the first lap. I got a good, clean start. [John] Edwards must have had clutch problems. I went on drivers' right, everybody else went on drivers' left, and I got hit in the rear. "I ended up in a concrete retaining wall. It wasn't a really hard hit, but it was hard enough to do some damage." Tom Gladdis, the 17 year-old racer from the English territory of Gibraltar,started from the pole and led a youthfest to the top step of the podium in Race 1/Round 4 of the 2008 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at the Mazda Grand Prix of Portland. Finishing second was 19 year-old Louisiana racer Alex Ardoin, who won the season-ending race in 2007 and scored his second podium of the 2008 season in the #51 Mundill / Oral & Facial Surgery Center /Twister Trailer Mazda. And rounding out the top-3 was 18 year-old Californian Billy Goshen, the first podium of his 4-race Star Mazda Championship career driving the #82 Goshen Motorsports / Merv Griffin Entertainment / Global Tracking Communications Mazda. The top-finishing Expert Series driver (ages 30-44) was Vancouver native Chris Cumming, scoring his third class win (and finishing 6th overall) in the #16 World Speed Motorsports / Inviro Medical Mazda. Winning the Master Series was Mike Guasch, driving the #91 Phenom Racing / Molecule Mazda. Guasch normally races in the West Coast Formula Mazda series and this is his first win as a Master Series driver in the Star Mazda Championship. "My car didn't feel that great at the start of the race, but I started playing with the roll bars and it got better and I was able to push a bit harder," said Gladdis, driver of the #5 Andersen Racing / Law firm of Marrache & Co. / Allied Building Products Mazda. "When Charles had his mechanical problem and I was able to get by, I knew then that I had a chance. I knew Alex was behind me, and that he was quite quick, so the last part of the race was about managing my tires while still staying ahead. Fortunately, it worked out just right and I'm really pleased for my team and sponsors to be able to win my first race from the pole here with Star Mazda as the main event." Notable races were had by several drivers, including one of the series' three female drivers, Texan Kristy Kester, who had her best race of the season so far, starting 9th in the #48 Kester Racing / Texas World Speedway / Unifirst Mazda and finishing 4th. The other half of the brother/sister Kester Racing Team, J.C. Kester, moved up from 17th to finish 9th in the #24 Kester Racing / Texas World Speedway / Unifirst Mazda. And Vancouver, B.C. racer Taylor Hacquard, who qualified 12th in the #15 World Speed Motorsports / Wolfe Auto Group Mazda, worked his way up to 5th at the finish. When the lights turned green for the new standing start implemented by the Star Mazda Championship for the 2008 season, the cars appeared to get away cleanly for the first few second, anyway. Then Round 3 winner and championship points leader Charles Hall was rammed from behind, turned sideways and hit the wall in his #77 Andersen Racing / Blimpie / AccentBanking.com/Pardoes Solicitors / Allied Building Products Mazda. The contact ended his race and putting a serious dent in his championship hopes. It's likely that this will be the race he drops in the 'best 11 of 12' points total at the end of the season. Also caught up in the melee were the #20 JDC Motorsports/Mazda/K&N Air Filters Mazda of MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder racer Joel Miller, who's crew changed the entire right front suspension during the long full-course yellow. The heroic effort enabling him to re-join the race and record a 22nd-place finish. Also into the wall and out of the race was one of the three female drivers in the field, Natalia Kowalska, who had qualified #33 John Walko Racing / Natan Developments Mazda. She was followed into retirement on lap 6 by the other female racer in the field, Michelle Bumgarner in the #43 John Walko Racing / Spectrum-OSO Asia/Oakley/Philippines Dept. of Tourism Mazda. John Edwards, who qualified on the outside of the front row in the #7 AIM Autosport Mazda, also retired on lap 6 with mechanical problems. After Race 1 of 2 in Oregon this weekend, Charles is in 2nd place in the Championship, however retains the 'theoretical' championship lead by dropping this race. His finishing position in this race was 20th -Championship series, 29th overall, including Masters and Expert series drivers.
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