McDowell looking for ChampCar ride

[Dov]

From azcentral.com:

McDowell, 19, who lives in Chandler and is a part-time instructor at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, also closed in on the Star Mazda North American Championship Series title by increasing a tenuous five-point lead to 23 over teammate Dan Di Leo, who finished fourth.

"I'm here to win races," said McDowell, who grew up in North Phoenix. "I've talked to several Champ Car teams and they're looking for drivers who dominate the junior (circuits). It's tough for me to be conservative. In my career, people don't really remember championships. They remember your last race."

[Snrub]

Regretably I've only seen a few Star Mazda races this season, but McDowell looks very good. Star Mazda is a wicked series, if CC is smart they'll work the Ford ownership of Mazda to make Star Mazda the feeder series to CC. It's technically suppose to be a feeder to ALMS, right? Atlantics has some very good drivers, but the health of the series means maybe it's time to merge into Star Mazda.

[codename_47]

I'm glad to hear that sentance about them looking at guys who dominate the ladder series, that's the way it should be!

[jjspierx]

McDowell is a very good driver. Thats strange though, because I'd heard that he already has a ride for 2005, but wouldn't be announced for awhile. It was rumoured to be a sports car team, presumably ALMS.

McDowell has dominated in Star Mazda this year, winning 7 of 9 races so far. I have have most of them on tape. The Star Race Cars team he's on is highly dominant, because they are the factory supported team and they have done a LOT more testing and have a basically unlimited budget. They already announced about a month ago that they will stand down after this year, which will give the other teams a chance next year.