Montreal: Starworks Motorsport race report

BAD LUCK STRUCK STARWORKS DRIVERS IN CANADA!

With only two races to go in the 2010 Rolex Series championship, everything was still possible for Ryan Dalziel to win the driver championship. Unfortunately after 8 laps, bad luck struck for the #8 Corsa Car Care Starworks Motorsport race car driven at the time by Canadian, Mike Forest. A ring and pinion failure stopped the potential winning effort of Forest and Dalziel and was costly for Ryan in the driver championship, who lost one position but still remains capable to gain his 2nd place back in the final round in two weeks in Utah. Mike Forest was very lucky and did not lose any position in the driver championship since Frisselle and Wilkins, his direct competitors in the championship for 5th place, finished behind the #8 car after crashing in the early laps of the race. Mike Forest maintains his 5th place in the point standings.

Following an ultra competitive showing in practice on Friday where Dalziel was one of the fastest drivers in all sessions and the fastest in the third session, the Starworks duo had extreme hopes for the race and the elusive first win for Starworks Motorsport was a true possibility.

The reliability of the team and their #8 car was phenomenal all season and this is really bad luck to have lost a gearbox in the race that could have been a celebration for the Fort Lauderdale based team owned by Peter Baron.

On Friday afternoon, Mike Forest, who did a superb job all weekend, qualified the #8 Starworks Motorsport BMW Riley in 8th place and started the race on Saturday. After a great series of laps and a first pit stop for a splash of fuel scheduled in Bill Riley's potentially winning strategy, Mike felt that something broke in the back and turned off the engine. He was towed back to the pits and the mechanics found out the car would not be able to regain the race. The Starworks Motorsport Corsa Car Care finished 11th in DP.

"Today was not our day," said Mike Forest after the race. "The guys did a terrific job getting the engine changed out and we knew we had a fast car after our performance on Friday. As soon as the mechanical failure happened in the race, I knew it was a big one, one that was not going to be able to be fixed. I feel terrible for Ryan Dalziel as it hurts his second position in the driver championship but we are not out of it yet so we just need to regroup and work towards a good result in Utah in two weeks" added Forest.

Ryan Dalziel was very upset after the race since he was not able to drive because of the unfortunate incident. "I am gutted," Dalziel declared after the event. "We were so fast all weekend and for whatever reason Starworks was denied a good run in Montreal. I really believe we could have won this one, after being fastest in final practice. All we can do now is win Miller and try to salvage something" concluded Dalziel.

-source: starworks motorsport