December 3, 2009
Daniel 'Stars' in Texas test!
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Daniel Erickson showed stunning speed in Mundill's Star Mazda openwheeler. Photo: Sarah Loeb (Mundill)
Daniel Erickson is ready to step up another rung on the motorsport ladder - that's the undeniable conclusion following his sensational test session with the Mundill Star Mazda team at MSR Houston Raceway.
In his first drive of a 'wings and slicks' openwheeler, Daniel lapped the 3.38km Texas road circuit on Thursday within 0.1 seconds of the best time ever recorded by a current-spec Star Mazda. The AMSF International Rising Star almost certainly would have set a new benchmark for the category if the truncated test had continued to the end of the day, but he had to finish at lunchtime to catch his return flight to Sydney.
The test, originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, was extended after rain on the first day limited Daniel to a handful of slow laps on the saturated track.
Having spent a cold and windy Wednesday familiarising himself with the rotary-engined car and the 3.38km MSR Houston layout, he got down to some serious laps in calmer but still chilly weather on Thursday morning. He recorded a 1m 25.4s lap on his first - and only, due to the time limitation - set of new tyres during the session.
Another 1m 25.4s lap in the same stint proved that the first one wasn't a fluke.
Mundill co-owner Jeff Hill was highly impressed by Daniel's performance in the test. Photo: Sarah Loeb (Mundill)
To say that Daniel impressed Mundill co-owner Jeff Hill would be an understatement. "Daniel got within a tenth of a second of the record this morning, despite conditions that made the track about half a second 'slow'!" Hill said.
"With a little more work, I am confident that he'd have lapped in the 1m 24s bracket. That would have been the quickest time here since Star Mazda switched from bias ply tyres to radials."
Daniel, who this year completed a successful debut international racing season in British Formula Ford, is due to arrive in Sydney on Saturday night after 10 months away from home.
An in-depth interview and photos from the USA Star Mazda test will appear on this website soon!
BACKGROUND
Star Mazda is among the USA's most competitive openwheeler 'development' categories, with a national championship and several regional series. The 2009 national championship boasted 20-plus fields at most of its 13 rounds.
Sanctioned by USA's International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), the Mazda-backed category is also highly lucrative. This year's end-of-season national championship awards totalled $US1.5M, with a fully sponsored drive in the USA Formula Atlantic Championship for the overall winner.
Star Mazda is a 'one-make' category featuring a common carbon-fibre chassis, 13B Mazda rotary engine, six-speed sequential transmission and Goodyear racing tyres.With a power output of 180kW and a 'dry' weight of 494kg, the cars have a higher power-to-weight ratio than Formula 3, Formula Renault 2.0, F2000 and Formula BMW.
The category is widely regarded as a stepping-stone to top-level categories such as Indycars and Formula 1.
For more information about Star Mazda, visit www.starmazda.com.
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