3rd Place Finish at Road America

Connor enjoyed his best result to date in the highly competitive Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear on Saturday (August 21), earning his first series podium finish. The talented MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Driver now leads the Rookie of the Year standings, after finishing an impressive third in Round 11 at Road America.
 

Winning twice at the famed Road America track in his 2009 Skip Barber National championship-winning season, Connor entered the weekend confident he could challenge for top honors as he and his mechanic steadily worked on fine tuning his car.
 

The Mazda-backed racer from California continued to shine in the lone qualifying session on Saturday, posting the second fastest time, earning his first Star Mazda front-row start.
 

When the cars lined-up for the traditional formula one style start a few hours later, he had one objective…fight for the win. Things did not go exactly as planned when the lights went out however, as a driver from row two passed both Connor and the polesitter within the first few corners. The nature of the fast 4.0-mile Wisconsin road course meant that Connor remained in contention for top honors. While he showed superb racecraft over the course of the next several laps, it was a late race full-course caution for a dramatic multi-car incident and the subsequent one-lap dash to the checkered flag that gave the highly-rated racer the opportunity to challenge for the win. Connor in the end crossed the stripe in third, earning his first series podium finish and advancing to first in the Rookie of the Year title chase.

"This season has been very challenging for me with car handling issues, so getting this podium finish just reinforces my determination not to give up." "I look forward to this coming weekend at Mosport in Canada and another podium finish". " Its important to finish out the season strong".

CONTACT DAMAGE HALTS DE PHILLIPPI IN TROIS-RIVIERES

  
Connor suffered a rare setback in his chase for Rookie of the Year honors in the Star Mazda Championship.

Travelling ‘North of the Border’ to take part in his inaugural Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres confident he could build on successful rookie season thus far earning top-five finishes in five of the previous nine rounds and only finishing outside of the top-10 once. 
 
In Saturday afternoons qualifying, the combination of traffic and not having quite the right balance in his car Connor qualifies eighth, several places further down the order than he had hoped.
 
Never one to stop working at making the car and himself better, Connor lined-up for Round 10 on Sunday afternoon poised to make his mark in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd.  Getting a good launch when the light went green, he immediately was in contention for a place in the top-five. Showing good speed and race craft on the often treacherous street circuit, Connor appeared headed towards another strong points earning result. Unfortunately it was not to be, as another racer squeezed him into the concrete wall, breaking the steering linkage on his car. As a result, his race ended prematurely in a highly disappointing 17th place.
 
“Our result at Trois-Rivieres was not what we had wanted,” Connor said. “The car felt much better in the race, and I was moving my way up into the top-five. When I was passing for sixth, I got blocked and then squeezed, which resulted in contact with the wall. Eventually the steering linkage broke and that was the end of our weekend. We will now focus on Road America and put this past weekend’s result behind us.”
 
 

June 26 and 27 were rounds Six and Seven of the Star Mazda Series

While Connor was among those battling for positions at the top of the time charts during Saturday morning qualifying for Round Six, the combination of traffic and less than ideal grip levels with his car resulted in a seventh fastest time at the end of the qualifying session. Getting a good start in race one moving up to 5th within the first few laps then up to 3rd due to a mishap with the front row cars. Connor held on to 3rd place for 19 laps until the last lap, last corner just getting nipped out of his first podium finish he had hoped for ending up 4th for the day.

Seeking to build on the strong run in race one of the doubleheader, Connor entered qualifying for Round Seven on Sunday morning confident he could again battle for top honors. Luck was not on his side however, as traffic again prevented him from getting the desired time on the scoring charts qualifying 7th.
 
Unlike the opening race in the Garden state, race two featured little in the way of opportunities for drivers to advance up through the field. Involved in a multi-car fight for position throughout the 35-lap race, Connor added another top-10 result at the stripe, giving him seven in seven races via an eighth place result.
 
“This weekend turned out to be another building weekend,” Connor stated. “Race one we caught a few breaks and nearly had a podium. The second day went a bit rough. Qualifying was not what we had hoped for, and made things really hard for us during the race. I was shuffled back in turns two & three, and wasn't able to fully recover. Overall it was another learning weekend. I’m looking forward to further testing in these next few weeks.