Arriving at the Glen for Round Three of the Star Mazda Championship Mundill ...

Arriving at the Glen for Round Three of the Star Mazda Championship Mundill quickly showed that they were able to come to grips with a new track and the changing weather conditions. Alex Ardoin had no problems adjusting to the unfamiliar “big momentum” track. Caio Lara, the youngest driver on the Mundill team enjoyed the “very fast, historical American track.” During Wednesdays IMSA test session a bearing in the rear case of Ardoin’s transmission let go. Lara also experienced a mechanical issue during that first test session as the center hub of his clutch failed. Although disappointed, Lara remained optimistic as he knew that this was something he “could not control.” Friday’s official practice consisted of several red flag’s, which threw off many teams and drivers, especially Mundill’s Rick Rosin. Due to budget restrictions Rosin needed to utilize all of his track time to develop what other drivers had been able to learn in the previous practice days. However Rosin’s shortage of track time only proved that he is quick to learn, quick on the track, and even quicker on restarts. Ardoin progressed all week long and in qualifying, Alex burned up the track. “Nailing every corner” he earned Mundill pole position with a fast time of 1:46.223. Mundill started the Watkins Glen Race with three cars in the top ten. Team co-owner Dave Mundy, was “really excited, and proud of the team.” Lara earned himself seventh position with a time of 1:47.555, though he felt as though he “could have done better”. Scott Rettich, a seasoned racer, with numerous karting championships, and Spec Racer Ford win’s under his belt gained momentum leading into qualifying. Rettich qualified tenth with a 1:48.040, but felt that if he was given more laps would have certainly been able to improve his time. Not far off the pace, Rosin posted a 1:48.729 to start in 12th position. Launching off from pole, Ardoin got an “amazing start.” Able to hold his ground through turn one, and the esses, he lost his lead to Charles Hall on the back straight. Lara lost one position off the start but by the fifth lap had gained it back. During the first restart Ardoin lost another position, dropping back to third. Rosin with his lightening speed reactions gained positions on every restart, making his way up to seventh, then dropping back down to tenth. It became apparent that Rettich was suffering from engine issues dropping to 15th. On lap 12, Lara was up to fifth position when a stone became lodged between his brake rotor and rim. Going into turn six he was unable to brake, causing him to “lose control” and hit the barriers. Lara managed to have the fifth fastest time of a 1:47.145 during the race. The hit was “hard on me, I am just sad because this is so unlikely to happen” said Lara. Ardoin’s podium finish was more than deserved. Mundill’s drivers are developing more rapidly than expected. This season expect the unexpected for Mundill. Catch Mundill in full action at Watkins Glen on SPEED Channel, airing June 21st at 11:00 AM Eastern. -Jennifer Carlson

Mundill, a reasonably young team to the Star Mazda paddock, approached the ...

Mundill, a reasonably young team to the Star Mazda paddock, approached the second round of the championship in Miller Motorsports Park with high aspirations. After a successful run in Sebring, FL the team displayed they are a contender for the 2008 championship. Adjusting to the new track configuration called the ‘outer course’ which is 3.048 miles long, came easy as the Mundill drivers had positive feedback about it. Rick Rosin compared it to the Nelsen Piquet circuit in Brazil saying that “It is a very demanding track.” Scott Rettich liked the “mix of high speed, middle speed, and low speed corners,” in comparison to last year’s 4.5 mile configuration. The hard luck story of the weekend was of Alex Ardoin. In pre-race testing, Ardoin suffered a mechanical failure, which caused a fire while on track. A week later while preparing the car for the last official practice session prior to qualifying, a crack was discovered in the monocoque chassis. Although the team had a backup car available, it was decided to swap major components from Alex’s car to the undamaged chassis. Valuable testing time was lost as Alex was unable to drive in the final official practice session. Ardoin jokingly said “aside from car fires and cracked tubs, this week is going great.” During qualifying, Brazilians, Caio Lara and Rick Rosin both relatively new to Mundill and the Star Mazda Series, shaved almost a second off their official practice times. Lara qualified 14th with a time of 1:46.066 and Rosin 12th with a 1:45.965. Scott Rettich followed the trend by dropping from a 1:47.548 in practice to 1:46.315 qualifying 17th. As a result of lost testing time during the final practice, and uncertainties surrounding the rebuild of Alex’s car, it was decided to use the first half of qualifying to evaluate and tune Alex’s car. After twenty minutes of track time, Alex had no issues with the car, and was comfortable with the setup. The crew had just switched to the qualifying tires as the first of two red flags came out. Luck wasn’t on Ardoin’s side yet again as he was unable to complete a lap due to the red flags, and would start from the end of the field. The opening laps of the Utah Grand Prix didn’t go without incident. Mundill’s Lara ran out of room in corner one as the car beside him spun, putting him out of the race. Lara was aiming for a top ten finish. Rosin worked his way up to ninth place but on the fifth lap had an off and fell back to 20th. Rosin gained six positions and managed to finish 14th. Rettich was able to make a clean start and gained 9 positions by the 11th lap, unfortunately, on lap 17, Rettich experienced brake failure, putting an end to his race. Prior to brake failure he had set his best time for the weekend of 1:45.92. Ardoin far exceeded expectations. Starting 29th, he moved up the grid and overtook 17 cars, to finish in 10th place. Mundill’s dedication and commitment to their drivers is quite apparent. The team will be back on track for Round 3 of the Star Mazda Championship at Watkins Glen on June 7th. Tune into SPEED at 3:00 pm Eastern on Saturday, May 31 2008 for the Star Mazda television coverage of the Utah Grand Prix. - Jennifer Carlson

With a new season underway, Mundill’s presence in the Star Mazda paddock is ...

With a new season underway, Mundill’s presence in the Star Mazda paddock is noticeably strong. Fielding a total of five cars for the season opener in Sebring FL, Mundill has displayed that they are one of the few growing teams in the sport. Mundill plans to add yet another car to the roster, with a total of six cars running in the 2008 Star Mazda series. Returning veteran drivers to Mundill are Scott Rettich, Alex Ardoin, and Mundill’s co-owner Dave Mundy. New to the Star Mazda series are Ciao Lara, Rick Rosin and Keith Young Jr. Lara and Rosin are both Brazilian karting champions. In 2007 Lara competed in São Paulo Formula, the Brazilian equivalent of Formula Ford. Lara set a new record for scoring the most consecutive podium finishes ever in the series. Young Jr. has been very successful racing in Formula Mazda, and SCCA club racing. Ardoin “confident” for qualifying Mundill’s Alex Ardoin suffered an electrical issue during Friday’s qualifying. With only two full laps completed Ardoin qualified an astonishing seventh place. Ardoin “…wasn't sure at first if the problem was engine related or an electrical issue.” Though Ardoin was thankful that “it was a minor electrical gremlin that the team was able to spot and fix shortly after qualifying was over.” The change from a rolling start to a standing start caught many of the Star Mazda drivers off guard, simply because they were unprepared and inexperienced. Unlike many other series drivers Rick Rosin of Mundill did not break under pressure. Rosin gained three positions off the start but unfortunately was assessed a penalty because of a “driving infraction.” Rosin has previous experience racing in the Brazilian Formula Renault series. Scott Rettich - a seasoned driver from Oxford, Ohio - has competed in Spec Racer Ford, Formula Mazda and is a national karting champion. Rettich’s aggressive driving style was exhibited when he overtook three cars in the first five laps. Starting seventh Ardoin held his ground on the start and began to reel in the competition. Ardoin fought to fourth place and if given another lap, would have challenged for a podium finish. “Third place was in the bag if I would have had one more lap, Peter's car had fallen off so much compared to mine, that he wouldn't have been able to hold me off for the entire lap.” stated Ardoin. He was only .176 of a second behind Peter Dempsey, which is faster than a blink of an eye. Finishing up the 2007 season with four top tens, two podiums and a win at Mazda Raceway, Ardoin has demonstrated that he is a serious threat and a major contender for the Star Mazda Championship. Mundill’s growth and talent will defiantly exceed people’s expectations this season. - Jennifer Carlson

I’d like to start the 2008 reports by thanking every team member. Sebring was a ...

I’d like to start the 2008 reports by thanking every team member. Sebring was a pretty challenging event for the team, and the crew effort was tremendous. Mundill had five cars at Sebring in the first Star Mazda race of 2008. Alex Ardoin of Lafayette, Louisiana and Scott Rettich of Oxford, Ohio are returning drivers who drove with us in 2007, and we are excited to have them back. New drivers are Ciao Lara from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Rick Rosin of Santa Catarina, Brazil and Keith Young of Dallas, Texas. We are honored to be chosen by each one of these drivers. All teams had to come to grips with our new tires. 2008 marks Star Mazda’s first year on radial tires. Good-Year delivered the tires at the first Sebring test day, so we all had a bit of a learning curve. The drivers all seemed pleased with the new tire. Star and Good-Year both put a lot of effort into having the new tires ready and right for Sebring. At the Sebring test days we chased electrical gremlins most of the week. None

Houston was a very good event for Mundill. The weather was great both days ...

Houston was a very good event for Mundill. The weather was great both days which was a pleasant change from Sebring. Having a race 45 minutes away from the shop was nice too! Alex Ardoin and Tony Rivera were the team drivers again and both did very well driving cars numbered 51 and 52 respectively. To start with both kept the cars out of the walls! This made life a lot easier for everyone on the team. We only had two practice sessions at Houston so there was a lot of strain on the team to get the cars fast right out of the box. Anthony Massari, and Jeff Hill made most of the decisions on initial set up, and they did a great job as both drivers had cars that were fast and comfortable to drive. The crew did a great job of keeping the cars in top shape for the weekend. Qualifying was a pretty interesting event. We were fairly sure we would not get the whole time allotted due to crashes, but it was shorter than we expected. After everything was said and done, Tony was 13th on the

VIR was a great experience. The track is as pretty as any I have seen. As you ...

VIR was a great experience. The track is as pretty as any I have seen. As you can tell it was my first time there. VIR was my Dad’s favorite track and one of the few that I did not get to go to with him. I am glad I have been now. I drove our backup car during the test day so I don’t have to many impressions of how Tony and Alex did, other than to say that they looked good going past me! As usual Alex was driving car #51 and Tony was driving car #52. I have not gotten to drive a Pro Car in quite a while and wasn’t up to a reasonable pace, so I went back to pacing in the pits for qualifying and the race. Alex felt like his car was down on power during qualifying and the race. Tony’s car lost a motor at the beginning of qualifying so he only got a few laps. Tony then had clutch issues in the backup car in morning practice before the race. This was not what we had hoped for after a great showing in Houston. Jeff discovered that a parts supplier has been making an error in the spr

Miller was a very interesting track in every regard. First of all is a very ...

Miller was a very interesting track in every regard. First of all is a very technical track. Since it is 4.5 miles long one’s first impression is that small mistakes won’t be punished too harshly on the timesheets. This could not be further from the truth; the track needs to be dealt with in a very precise manner despite its length. It is very deceptive visually in many sections. Oh, and you can see explosions from the adjacent proving grounds as you drive! Alex and Tony were driving cars 51 and 52 respectively as usual. Alex was pretty fast out of the box, while it took Tony a bit longer to memorize the track. Somewhere in his past Alex had driven the track before which was a tremendous advantage. Both drivers made steady progress and went faster every session through qualifying. From a team perspective things went smoothly for the most part. The group continues to function more smoothly and we continue to learn. With some drama Tony qualified 14th. Tony spun on the last lap of

Mundill LLC would like to congratulate Alex Ardoin and his parents Robin and ...

Mundill LLC would like to congratulate Alex Ardoin and his parents Robin and Debbie on a spectacular race in Toronto. Toronto is a beautiful city. I had never been before and I really liked the area. The track was great too. It had a lot of character and was fun to drive. The first day went pretty well for everyone at Mundill. No one on our team had ever been to this track before so the first session was pretty much spent just figuring the track out. The second session was pretty tricky as the track seemed pretty slippery. Qualifying was a mess for our team. This season qualifying has been one of our strengths, but things did not go our way this time. When it was over Alex was 16th and Scott was 17th. This was not what we had in mind, especially on a street track where it is very hard to pass. The race involved a fair bit of car parts being violently removed from their car. Sadly one of our cars, driven by Scott was involved in one of the incidents. Scott was coming onto th

Road America is one of my favorite places in the world. The people are nice, ...

Road America is one of my favorite places in the world. The people are nice, the food is good and the track is terrific. If you have never had a chance to visit it should be on your list of places to go, either as a spectator or as a driver. It was however a mixed bad for the Mundill team this weekend. The first practice session was held in conditions that varied from a light rain to a downpour. Since the weather report was good for the rest of the weekend we did not send the cars out much. After a couple of reconnaissance laps Scott, Alex and I parked back at the trailer to wait out the weather. So the first session was pretty much a waste. In the afternoon things were better. The track was mostly dry and we managed to get some testing in. This was a very good thing, as we learned a lot. None of us were on pace, but we had a good game plan going into qualifying Friday. Qualifying went pretty well. Scott qualified mid pack, and was much happier with his car. He had a good game

Alex Ardoin captures his first pole in the Star Mazda series at the Grand Prix ...

Alex Ardoin captures his first pole in the Star Mazda series at the Grand Prix of Three Rivers. His pole time of 1:02.306 was set early in the qualifying session and remained uncontested while Alex waited in the pits.

Alex Ardoin captures first podium for the season for Mundill in Toronto. This ...

Alex Ardoin captures first podium for the season for Mundill in Toronto. This is an accomplishment for Mundill and Alex considering they are both fairly new to the Star Pro Mazda Series. Keep an eye out for this upcoming star of the series.

After the last race in Cleveland, Mundill announced a new driver to bring the ...

After the last race in Cleveland, Mundill announced a new driver to bring the team total to four drivers. Scott Rettich in his #97 Star Mazda will compete in the remaining races for the season. "With Mundill now fielding more cars in the remaining races, we are bound to excell in set up strategies at every event."