Junior Open Wheel Talent

The Star Mazda series released their 2009 schedule today with a few changes. Most notably the addition of two oval events to the series schedule; Milwaukee Mile & Iowa Speedway. Both events will be 100-lap events. The addition of the oval tracks might seem strange to some, but it's not the first time Star Mazda has included them in their schedule. Drivers faced the Milwaukee Mile in 2006 where they ran as a support class to the Champ Car World Series. Current Indy Lights driver Michael Potekhen won the race. The unification of Champ Car and the Indy Car series has created a demand for drivers capable of running at speed on both an oval and a road course. Star Mazda is taking a step in the right direction. Open wheel racing in the United States is known for it's diversity of circuits and this addition to a junior formula will only better prepare today's young stars for the road ahead. The series will be run as a headline class on five occasions but they have also aligned their schedule with several large series: ALMS, Grand Am, NASCAR, as well as the ARCA series.

The promoters did a nice job of mixing up the schedule for 2009 and eliminating some of the gaps in race weekends that we saw in 2008. However, I will say I'm disappointed to see that Road America was removed from the schedule for 2009.