Toronto: Friday final practice notes

FRIDAY AFTERNOON PRACTICE

In a final late-afternoon practice session on a much hotter race track with an assortment of slips, slides and trips down the escape road, but no red flags, Dane Cameron... despite a last-lap spin... maintained his position at the top of the time sheet right from the first lap. Driving the #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports Mazda, he improved from his 1:09.519 lap in morning practice to set a time of 1:09.334.

As in the morning session, Australian racer James Davison, driver of the #7 Velocity Motorsports/Easternats Mazda retained the 2nd slot on the time sheet. He turned a lap of 1:09.772 in the morning, but was just a few thousandths slower in the afternoon, turning a 1:09.779.

Improving markedly from his morning ranking, Quebec's Devin Cunningham improved from 8th with a lap of 1:10.865 to 3rd in the afternoon, turning a 1:09.792 in the #33 AIM Autosport/Discovery Channel Mazda.

Slipping in a fast lap late in the session, Jonathan Goring of Norfolk, CT moved up from 9th in the morning with a lap of 1:10.882 to 4th on the time sheet with a lap of 1:09.829. Goring drives the #14 Andersen Racing/Skip Barber Racing Mazda.Toronto's Marco Di Leo, driver of the #21 Maxwell Paper Racing Mazda, also improved in the second session. His morning time was a 1:10.669, which he lowered to a 1:09.859 in the afternoon, moving up from 6th to 5th.

The final Canadian in the field, Lorenzo Mandarino of Vancouver suffered in the afternoon session, dropping from fourth-fast in the morning to 13th in the second session. His a.m. time of 1:10.508 slipped to 1:10.696 in the p.m. Mandarino drives the #23 Team G.FRO/Newway Forming Mazda.

The lone female racer in the series, Natacha Gachnang of Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland, was 11th in both sessions -- despite improving from a 1:11.183 in the morning to a 1:10.656 in the afternoon. Gachnand drives the #35 AIM Autosport Mazda and has made Star Mazda series history by finishing on the podium in the last two races.

The next on-track action is at 8:00 am Saturday morning, a 35-minute qualifying session to set the starting grid for the 45-minute Star Mazda Championship race scheduled to take the green flag at 3:30 pm Saturday, July 7.Toronto is the seventh round of the 12-race 2007 Star Mazda Championship schedule. Star Mazda races are broadcast tape-delayed on SPEED TV. Date and time (all times stated are Eastern and subject to change) for the one-hour broadcast is available at www.speedtv.com/programs. The Toronto race is scheduled to air on Saturday, July 21 at 12:00 pm with a re-broadcast on Monday, July 23 at 3:00 pm.

The next event on the Star Mazda schedule is at Road America, with the American Le Mans Series, on August 10 -- 11.

-credit: smazda