In mid September the 2007 Formula Mazda Challenge season comes to a close, but the World Speed Motorsports team will not be slowing down. “We have four double headers, and the Star Mazda finale at Mazda Raceway on the schedule for the next nine weeks,” stated Operations Manager Mark Milazzo. “This weekend we are running with the SCCA here at Infineon, just prior to our usual Jim Russell race weekend. From there we go to Monterey for another SCCA double header followed by the Star Mazda finale, and an additional SCCA weekend at Mazda Raceway falls a week after the Star event. There’s also an additional nine test days during the same time period, so we will be pretty busy up to the beginning of November.”
In the past, the ‘off season’ was quite a bit longer than it has been in recent years. “The cars will return from Mazda Raceway and be back in the shop for less than two weeks before we head down to Buttonwillow Raceway Park for the Standing Start Driver Development Days,” added Team Manager John Olsen. “The drivers who participated in this program earlier this year made significant improvements in such a short period of time and we expect to see the same kind of results at November’s event. We are working on a data acquisition class for that week as well, so this could be the best time to pick up good habits and information as drivers start to prepare for the 2008 season.”
The Standing Start days lead right into race one of the Formula Mazda Challenge Winter Series which will feature two races each at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, Firebird International Raceway, and Phoenix International Raceway running from November 2007 until January 2008.