Star Mazda: New Jersey race two
Tough day but 7th for Dempsey puts him in championship lead

Millville, NJ (2009.06.13) Peter Dempsey set a new track record in his qualifying session, Unfortunately, five cars in session two did just a little bit better leaving Dempsey to start race two on the outside of row three this afternoon(- .245 sec's). Jorge Goncalvez and David Ostella also improved their times but on what turned out to be a very fast track, they would have to settle for starting alongside one another on the eighth row (Jorge - 15th, David - 16th) just 9/10ths back of the pole.

The race had a lengthy caution in the opening laps but all three drivers made up positions before the yellow came out. On the restart, the race unfolded much as it did on Saturday with the field stringing out and everyone on the same pace which made passing difficult. It appeared that Peter suffered some damage due to contact and fell back to seventh. With a bent front wing, he was unable to catch up for position and had a lot on his hands holding off contenders.

Jorge managed to get through traffic and moved up to sit tenth at the end while David fell out of contention early when he was assessed a drive through penalty and he finished nineteenth.

At the end of the day, Peter's seventh place finish was enough to move him back into the championship lead as his chief rival suffered suspension problems and after coming back to the race a few laps down, would be classified twenty-fourth. The championship race has tightened up however with Peter (173 pts) leading by just one point over second and two points over third.

The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear now heads to Wisconsin for the first of two oval races (Milwaukee Mile - June 20) before going to Iowa Speedway on July 10.

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