Newton, Ia. – After a month hiatus in the 2015 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, Juncos Racing completed the final oval of the season this past weekend with the Pro Mazda Iowa 100 at Iowa Speedway. Mexican José Gutiérrez finished just outside the Top-5 taking sixth in Round 12 of the championship.
José Gutiérrez took the fastest time overall in practice while teammates Timothé Buret and Garett Grist rounded out the Top-3 during the two combined sessions. Rookie Will Owen finished just outside the Top-5 in sixth.
Grist, who previously earned his first win of the 2015 season on the Streets of Toronto, picked up his second pole of the season. Teammates Gutiérrez, Owen, and Buret took the fifth, sixth, and seventh qualifying positions. Unfortunately these starting positions would not hold for Grist, Gutiérrez, and Buret after being disqualified for a procedural violation, moving all three cars to the back of the field.
Gutiérrez, started 13th in the #7 Prisma car, made the strongest run for Juncos Racing moving up the field to take home sixth. Buret, driver of the #6 BroadSign car, finished ninth. Grist took 10th in the #5 BlackList/Lander Property Management car and Owen, driver of the #23 AMR car, ended his day in 11th.
After a strong start to the weekend at Iowa, Team Principle Ricardo Juncos was disappointed to see all the hard work put into the qualifying efforts erased due to a miscommunication within the team, putting three of the four drivers to the back of the field.
“The Pro Mazda team did an outstanding job this weekend,” said Juncos. “Even though the end result wasn’t what we wanted, we proved to everyone that Juncos (Racing) is still the team to beat at Iowa. I have to apologize to our drivers and sponsors for the mishap in qualifying. We cost Garett (Grist) his pole position and José (Gutiérrez) and Tim (Buret) very good starting positions because of a small procedural violation. I can assure everyone that our cars passed pre and post technical inspection, it was nothing more than a miscommunication within the team that caused us to lose our starting positions. If it weren’t for this I strongly believe we would have had a very dominate weekend.”
Driver Quotes:
Timothé Buret (Montpellier, France): “This weekend was very interesting for me. It was a little more difficult since this was only the second time I have ever run on an oval. I have learned so much on both ovals and will continue to improve with more experience. It was a difficult race for me, but I did my best to do a good lap each lap. I’m looking forward to being back on the road courses and finishing my rookie season with positive results.”
Garett Grist (Grimsby, Ontario, Canada): “Iowa was an up and down weekend for us. We were quickest for the first practice and I was less than 0.10 seconds off the leader for the second practice session. We were able to qualify on pole, but were disqualified which was very unfortunate for all of the hard work we put into qualifying. During the race I had some issues with the car and ended up finishing 10th. Even though the race did not go as planned we showed great pace at Iowa. It’s just frustrating when you have one of the best cars here and the results not show it. I’m really looking forward to Mid-Ohio where I won last year and hope to bring home two more wins. I’d like to thank everyone, Lander Property Management, my family, and my engineer Peter (Dempsey) who has done an amazing job with these race cars.”
José Gutiérrez (Monterrey, Mexico): “It was an up and down weekend at Iowa. We had issues after qualifying and were penalized moving three of us to the back of the field, where I started last. I was very happy for our sixth place finish after starting last and was very happy with how the car ran throughout the weekend. I’m feeling really good going into Mid-Ohio in a few weeks and I am ready to go for the win.”
Will Owen (Castle Rock, Colorado, USA): “This weekend at Iowa had its highs and lows for me. It was a tough and long race, I ended up getting pretty tired towards the end of the race. We just didn’t have the setup we needed for the race. I qualified fifth, but after a few people got moved around I moved up to start the race third. I had a decent start for the race, up until a lap or two in where a lost a bunch of spots. We learned a lot this weekend and know what we need to improve on for the next round. I’m looking forward to coming back here next year and getting the results we deserve.”
The 2015 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires continues August 1-2 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Round 13 and 14.
About Juncos Racing: Ricardo Juncos, a second generation and former Formula Renault driver, grew up with a deep passion and desire for racing. At the age of 14, Juncos made his first steps in the racing community driving karts in Argentina. Through his success in karts Juncos was able to join the Formula Renault class competing throughout South America. After funding became difficult as many drivers experience over their career, Juncos began working for many race teams in order to continue his own racing career. During this time Juncos was able to learn all aspects of the car in and out, along with schooling in mechanical and electrical engineering. Stationed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and headed by Ricardo Juncos, in 1997 “Juncos Racing” became a full-service Formula Racing team. By 2003, the team relocated to Miami, Florida as a full-service karting team. During the first few years in the U.S., the team picked up 19 local, regional, and national karting titles. Juncos Racing moved operations north to Indiana, where they developed into a formula open-wheel racing team in 2008. The team went into full swing dedicating most of the time preparing drivers and crew members for the next level in racing. Following this transitional year, Juncos Racing participated in its first open-wheel series, in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship - INDYCAR’s Mazda Road to Indy ladder series. 2010 proved to be a big year for the team with driver Conor Daly capturing the driver championship and finishing second in the team Star Mazda Championship. By 2012, the team’s operations expanded to include cars in the Firestone Indy Lights series and even recorded the fastest lap of the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That same year Juncos Racing took second in the Star Mazda team championship and third driver in the championship with driver Conner De Phillippi while Diego Ferreria was awarded “Most Improved Driver of the Year.” Juncos Racing continued their run in the Pro Mazda Championship (former Star Mazda Championship) finishing second in the 2013 team championship. Most recently the team finished one of their most successful years winning the driver championship, with Spencer Pigot, and the team championship in both the Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship and 2014 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. The team operates of out Brownsburg, Indiana.