Rounds four and five of the 2008 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear take place July 24th – 27th at Portland International Raceway. This year’s PIR weekend will be vastly different than any before, and will feature the Star Mazda Championship as the main event of the weekend. The Mazda Grand Prix of Portland will showcase an extraordinarily diverse variety of racing, including a Star Mazda double-header as well as the Mazda MX-5 Cup. Also on the schedule are the Oregon Brewers Festival, VW TDI-Cup, bicycle races, drag racing and motocross, as well as a huge ‘cruise in,’ drifting and Time Attack.
The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will race twice, once on Saturday July 26th and again on Sunday July 27th. On both days the race, featuring the series’ new standing start format, will take place at 2 pm.
World Speed Motorsports will be bringing six competitors to this event, and is leading the Expert Championship with Chris Cumming. Taylor Hacquard, World Speed’s other Star Series regular is currently sitting 7th in points in the overall championship and 6th in the Rookie of the Year standings.
The Portland double header races are also a part of the Star Mazda West Coast Series and WSM driver Stan Kohls heads into this weekend in third place behind Michael Guasch, and series leader Patrick O’Neill. Kohls will be joined by Michael Gesser who will be making his Star Series debut, and also David House and Frank McCormick who both podiumed at the Laguna Seca races last month.
“We have to thank Star Mazda and Mazda USA for making this event happen. So many of our drivers love Portland, the track and the city and we thought we may have lost this event due to Champ Car cancelling it,” said Molecule Formula Mazda Challenge/Star Mazda West Coast Series Official Ben Hettema. “As has been the case across our industry in recent years, Mazda stepped up and made it happen.”