Brownsburg, IN (November 9, 2009 )
Jorge Goncalvez took the trip to California with high expectations of doing well in the Formula Mazda Winter Championship and reuniting with Team Apex having raced Formula BMW with them in his first year of driving. Immediately from the start everything went well and Jorge was the dominate driver all weekend and in some of the practice sessions lapping 2-3 seconds quicker than the next competitor.
After a slight mishap in morning practice damage was sustained in Jorge's race car. The team worked hard and made the necessary repairs and Jorge was out in the qualifying session to capture his first ever pole position.
In the race Jorge quickly moved out front and while another competitor was tailing him in the opening laps, Jorge settled into a nice pace and worked traffic extremely well and won his first Mazda race, setting fastest race lap with a margin of victory by over 4.5 seconds.
During technical inspection the race director claimed that Jorge had "jumped the start" and Jorge was penalized one spot and relegated to second. "I'm not sure why they threw the green flag if Jorge had jumped the start flagrant enough to receive a penalty", said Team Apex Technical Director, Louis D'Agostino, and "the NASA rule 20.10 was clearly not followed by the race director. This was very disappointing for Jorge and the team"
Team Apex Racing, USA was formed in 2004 and has been involved in grass roots racing since 1989. The team emerged as championship contenders in the 2005 Formula BMW USA series with Canadian rookie Robert Wickens and continued its winning heritage in 2007 with American superstar Alexander Rossi. Team sponsors include Wabash Capital Investments, Apex Performance x3 Cryogenics and Indiana State University Motorsports Program.
Media Contact: Rick Myers rick@teamapexusa.com