Jack Hawksworth scored possibly his most dominant victory yet in the Star Mazda season. The Team Pelfrey rookie recorded his seventh win from his eighth pole, this time by a staggering 24.394 seconds in his first trip to Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
“The Pelfrey team gave me a very well-balanced car for the race, which is critical here, because the roads that make up the circuit are so heavily crowned that a foot one way or another in apexing a turn can completely change the balance of the car,” said Hawksworth. “According to the weather man, there's a 90 percent chance of rain tomorrow, and that will throw a cat in among the pigeons, since no one has raced in the rain here, but we have a good program for quickly finding grip under any conditions, and finding it ahead of everyone else will tell the tale.”
Series veterans Sage Karam and Connor De Phillippi completed the podium. Karam's tour of races in Canada means he's now scored a podium in each of the three Canadian rounds (third at Toronto race two, second in both Edmonton races). Meanwhile for De Phillippi, whose Canadian swing has been largely one to forget, it was a welcome return to the top three.
After a two-year hiatus, Alex Ardoin returned to the series for this weekend's races. Running with Team GDT, the Lafayette, Louisiana native finished fourth ahead of Gabby Chaves, the JDC Motorsports Colombian-American who will be profiled in the September issue of RACER.
Ardoin's teammate, Ryan Tveter, was left stranded on the grid with a failed car. That marked the race's only full course caution.
Hawksworth leads the standings by some 58 over Karam, 61 over Chaves and 71 over De Phillippi with six races remaining. The first of those last six is Sunday morning in Trois-Rivieres.