DALLAS, TEXAS — This coming weekend's Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course doubleheader has attracted one of the biggest fields so far this season in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, and three of the 16 entries will be fielded by M1 Racing of Dallas.
Team owner Paul Mata and his crew are preparing cars for 22-year-old Kyle Connery of Vero Beach, Fla., who will be making his first series start, as well as for two drivers in the Expert class — Walt Bowlin of Tarpon Springs, Fla., and Jay Horak of Mesa, Ariz. The Expert class is for drivers over the age of 30.
Connery, an instructor and the kart track supervisor at the Monticello Motor Club, will be in the No. 91. It advertises SeaRock, which is a specialty colored seashell provider.
Connery may be new to the series but he was victorious in a F2000 Championship Series race in the rain at Mid-Ohio last Saturday, July 27. He is currently second in that series' point standings.
Bowlin, an oral surgeon, will be in the No. 23 sponsored by Tampa Bay Jaw Surgery, Jet Concepts and Foremost Insurance. The defending champion of the Pro Mazda series' Expert class, he was on the podium twice in his first appearance with M1 Racing earlier this month in Toronto, Ontario.
Horak drives the No. 37 sponsored by a company he own, AutoEnginuity. It is the leading provider of PC/PDA-based scan tools in the world, helping vehicle owners and service shops diagnose and tune vehicles quickly and economically.
Horak will be making his first appearance with the team but he finished second in the Expert class in the season-opening doubleheader at Circuit of the Americas in March.
The action gets underway on Thursday with two 45-minute test sessions at 10:20 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Two official practice sessions are slated for 10:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Friday. Connery and Horak will participate in a question-and-answer session on the stage in the IndyCar Fan Village on Friday from 12:15 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. too, and they may convince Bowlin to accompany them.
Saturday's schedule shows a 30-minute qualifying session at 7:50 a.m. followed by the first of two 40-minute races at 4:20 p.m. Connery will represent the team at the Pro Mazda/USF2000 autograph session in the IndyCar Fan Village from noon to 12:30 p.m. that day, although fans can also get all three drivers' autographs at the team transporter throughout the weekend.
The second race is scheduled to begin at 10:05 a.m. Sunday. All times are Eastern.
The doubleheader is part of a busy schedule that is headlined by an IZOD IndyCar Series race Sunday afternoon on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course in Lexington, Ohio, about 60 miles north of Columbus. The Pro Mazda series is part of the Mazda Road to Indy program that strives to prepare future IZOD IndyCar Series drivers.
For more information on M1 Racing, see its website at M1Racing.co. Its Facebook page is at M1 Racing — Pro Mazda, and it can also be found on Twitter @M1ProMazda.