AIM Autosport and Driver John Edwards win 2008 Star Mazda Championship with Engineering Services Provided by Purcell Race Engineering

2008 was truly and exceptional year for Purcell Race Engineering. PRE continued a solid relationship with AIM Autosport, again campaigning in the extremely competitive Star Mazda Series. Eric Purcell would again work as chief engineer for the AIM Autosport Star Mazda program, as he did in 2007.

At the start of the year, it looked as if AIM would be sitting this year out, focusing instead on developing drivers for the 2009 season, but the opportunity arose to run an extremely talented young driver, John Edwards. After a short test at Mosport, the entire team was very excited about their prospects for 2008.

John joined the team late, as the first round of the Star Mazda Championship at Sebring, Florida had already been run. This would put the AIM team at a significant disadvantage as they would start 44 points down to Sebring winner Joel Miller. This meant that John would need a nearly perfect season to overcome this challenge, and could not afford any big mistakes.

With Eric’s guidance and the strong will of the small three man AIM Autosport team, John demolished the competition at his first race in the series with a dominant victory at Miller Motorsports Park. With virtually no pre-season testing, John qualified on the pole position, nearly .7 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. “The AIM team gave me a car so easy to drive that it took hardly any effort to set the pole time,” said Edwards. “I did my pole time on my third lap on a set of brand new tires and immediately pitted to see if anyone could beat it, which they didn’t. So I’ll be starting the race with tires that have only three laps on them, which is a huge advantage.” John’s unmatched speed lead him to a huge margin of victory, greater than 14 seconds, rarely heard of in this highly competitive series.

The only two small hiccups during the season were at Watkins Glen and at the first race in Portland. At Watkins Glen, a suspension component failed in practice, resulting in a devastating crash. Eric and the AIM crew worked feverishly just to get the car back together in time for qualifying, eliminating the all important practice laps that are needed to get the car properly adjusted for optimum speed. Neither John nor the car was 100% for the race, and a disappointing sixth place was all that could be mustered.

The following race at Portland featured two races for the Star Mazda cars during the weekend, and the AIM boys would qualify on the front row for both races (second spot in each). Unfortunately, at the start of the first race, a mechanical failure (clutch) would end John’s race before it started. The only “silver lining” that day was that even though John struggled, his championship rivals struggled as well that day, and although the points deficit grew, the championship was still not out of reach.

The next day started a championship run that lasted until the final round at Laguna Seca four months later. John would blast away at the start and lead every lap in the second race at Portland, and the team would not look back from there.

Over the next seven races, John would record an unmatched three pole positions, three victories, and only finish off the podium (top three places) one time, a fourth place at Mosport. With John’s skills, Eric’s engineering, and the AIM Autosport team’s immaculate preparation, the team would be in contention for the victory at every race.

To the victor come the spoils! This was an impressive 11 race season featuring 5 race wins, 4 pole positions, 8 podium finishes. John also never started lower than 5th, and was only off the front row 3 times during the season. Victory in the Star Mazda Championship comes with a prize package of nearly 1 million dollars, including a fully sponsored ride in the 2009 Formula Atlantic Championship for John Edwards, as well as cash and other awards for John’s overall Title win and Rookie of the Year awards. PRE and Eric Purcell are very proud to congratulate John and AIM Autosport for this terrific “giant killer” victory, and look forward to many more race and championship wins with the team.

Outside the Star Mazda series, PRE consulted to a SCCA Club racing Formula Atlantic team, Blackhawk Racing. Blackhawk’s Roger Glover qualified on the pole and lead at his only race of the season, the double National at Thunderhill Raceway Park. Unfortunately, a competitor crashed into Roger and damaged his car severely enough to end his season at this early juncture. “Eric gave me the best handling car I had ever driven at Thunderhill, and the pole position proved that” Roger commented later. “It’s a shame to have to end the season so early, but I look forward to coming back next year with Eric to finish what we had started”.

Purcell Race Engineering was also hired as a consultant to the new Oregon Raceway Park, assisting in the design and safety considerations for this spectacular new 2.5 mile circuit. Utilizing three different simulation programs, Eric Purcell was able to provide straightaway and corner speeds for the entire track, as well as identify several areas where the original design was modified either for safety or for better racing at this venue. “We would have made several major mistakes that could have cost this project and insurmountable amount of funding had we not talked with Eric first” commented Jonathan Clark, former project director and investor at ORP. PRE would like to congratulate Oregon Raceway Park for completing the paving at this exciting facility, and looks forward to ORP becoming a first class racing venue in the very near future.
 
PRE was also hired to engineer once again in the Formula BMW of Americas series, where they worked with Walker Racing in 2006. Eric Purcell engineered at the Formula BMW finale in Sao Paulo, Brazil for Team Apex USA. Eric and the team faced many difficulties during this event, and while disappointed with the results, the Team was very pleased with Eric’s work. Team Apex manager Martin Bates commented “Eric walked into the most difficult event of the season for us, and worked through the many challenges we encountered very well. We hope to work with Eric again in the future and give him some better results!”

PRE has been retained once again to work with the AIM Autosport Star Mazda team for 2009, and will be continuing to work with outside contracts as well.

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