The #8 Corsa Car Care / Xtreme Indoor Karting Starworks Motorsport Dinan-BMW Riley driven by 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona champ, Ryan Dalziel, and Mike Forest finished 5th in Saturday’s Grand Prix of Miami, Round 2 of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16. Dalziel also led 1 lap like Starworks did at the Rolex 24. The #8 IPO Solutions / Xtreme Indoor Karting Starworks Motorsport Dinan-BMW Riley driven by Ian James and Bill Lester finished 12th despite great drives by both drivers.
Mike Forest qualified 10th in the #7 Starworks DP and drove a fantastic problem free first stint confirming his true talent. Ryan Dalziel took over after 45 minutes and had a very competitive run. In the last laps of the race Dalziel was in contention for a podium finish but the last yellow came and at the re-start it was not possible for Ryan to catch back up to the lead group so he and Mike Forest had to settle with a 5th place finish.
It was the first time Starworks new engineering team, led by Bill Riley, had a chance to work with Starworks drivers to match a set-up to their styles on the new Pirelli tires.
Peter Baron, Starworks Motorsport principal was delighted by this result. “Our debut race at Homestead was a tremendous success” declared Baron after the race. “We completely rebuilt 2 Riley chassis from the tub up, in less than two weeks with many new team members. To come out of Homestead with 2nd fastest race lap, and a top five finish with both cars running flawlessly the entire weekend is a fantastic achievement. Also coming back with two unscathed cars gives our team the first time this year that we get to work on improving the base chassis. We are going to push hard to get both cars in the top five for the next event. Until then, we are quite thrilled for our new team’s front running performance on a considerably smaller budget than most other teams” added Baron.
With this result, Ryan Dalziel is now ranked third, only six points behind the leaders, Pruett and Rojas, in the 2010 Rolex Series driver point standings.”What a debut for the #8 car” announced Dalziel “We had amazing pace throughout the race and we were unlucky not to come away with a podium. Fifth place is a great start to our 2010 campaign and I am proud of the job my Starworks crew performed” said Ryan Dalziel.
Mike Forest was really happy with his performance and even won the Jim Trueman award. The Jim Trueman Award, for Daytona Prototype drivers, is awarded at each race to drivers based upon the performance of their team and their own individual driving contribution. The driver’s primary source of income cannot be from driving racecars in any series at any time in the past five years.
“I think it was a solid weekend for Starworks Motorsport, we improved the car through the weekend, came together as a team as it was our first two car effort and posted a top five finish. I believe there will be good things to come this year” added Mike Forest.
The #7 Starworks Motorsport co-driven by Lester and James was not so lucky. Bill Lester qualified the #7 Starworks machine in 13th place on Friday but was not able to drive a lot in practice and his teammate Ian James got to perfect the setup to make sure the car was competitive for the race.
After a very good start Bill Lester was racing in the top ten and handed the car to Ian James after his stint. “When you think about where this team was last week, there is a lot to be proud of” stated Lester after the race. “We stumbled a bit out of the gate on the #7 car, but we learned a lot. We’ll weed out the good from the bad and be ready for our next race at Barber” announced Lester.
Ian James had a very competitive ride but was frustrated by two problems that hurt his progression and prevented him finishing high like the #8 car; two penalties during the final pit stop and a component failure at the end of the race. Ian James was a little disappointed but he knows that he will back in one month with a vengeance. “The race was a testimony to the crew at Starworks” announced James after the race. “Our cars ran faultlessly all weekend but we had a steering component failure and a slight pit stop miscue that prevented us finishing in the top six but with some extra time to refine things we will definitely be stronger at the next race at Barber. Exciting times!” added Ian James.
Source : Starworks Motorsport