Watkins Glen, NY (August 10, 2009) – The new driver pairing of Californians Dane Cameron and Tom Sutherland continued to demonstrate exceptional chemistry in scoring the first-ever podium finish in a Grand-Am event for the Racers Edge team and the #30 Racers Edge/ClickAway GT1 Mazda RX-8. This result, on the heels of a 4th-place finish at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, has elevated the team to 9th in the championship battle (among 32 teams competing in the GT class) and resulted in high hopes for the next event on the calendar at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on August 28 – 29.
"This podium finish was a long time coming, but the Racers Edge team has been working really hard and made a lot of progress in the last few weeks, so I feel we really earned it," says Cameron, a rising sports car and open-wheel star from Sonoma, California. "We were quick out of the box, which is the key to any race weekend, and given that we had to start from the back due to a problem in tech inspection, I think the result shows we had a car that was actually capable of winning the race."
The Racers Edge team made a spring and suspension change that should have resulted in improved handling without changing the ride height of the car, but after Tom Sutherland posted a time that put the car second on the GT grid, it proved less than a millimeter too low during the post-qualifying inspection and – by the rules - the team was relegated to starting at the back of the field. Sutherland, having qualified, started the car in the race and battled his way up to sixth before handing the car over to Cameron at the mid-point of the race. He then took it to the front and battled with the leaders, passing both cars that finished ahead of him before dropping back to finish third due to traffic in the closing laps of the race.
"It was a crazy race on the short course at Watkins Glen," said Cameron. "Everyone is driving very, very aggressively, the pace is really fast and there's lots of body contact and traffic. It's actually a blast to drive in those conditions because you usually have to be so measured and careful in these races, but the track suited our car and I think the same will be true of the track at Montreal as well. We've worked out a lot of issues with the car, and the team is functioning very smoothly and hopefully we can battle for another podium, or even a win, before the end of the season."
Cameron arrived at this point in his career via an accomplished climb up the open-wheel ladder. Driving for Genoa Racing in the ultra-competitive 2008 Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda, Cameron started from the pole once and scored two podiums and five top-5 finishes, finishing seventh in the championship during his rookie season.
In 2007, he was both series champion and Rookie of the Year in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear with three wins, six pole positions, five podium finishes and two top-5s. In 2006, Cameron was the Rookie of the Year and finished second in the F2000 championship and, as a Team USA Scholarship driver, he won the 2006 Palmer Audi Winter Championship in Europe. In 2005, he was the SCCA Formula Jim Russell Series champion and Rookie of the Year. His karting career, beginning in 2000, was similarly successful, including the 2003 Jim Russell Karting 80cc Junior Shifter Championship and a 2004 finalist in the Red Bull Driver Search. He is also a winner of the prestigious Gorsline Company Human Performance Institute Scholarship presented to young drivers who consistently display exceptional talent and a professional respect for motorsports. Past winners include Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice, Bryan Herta and Butch Leitzinger. Cameron's long-time personal sponsors include the Finlay Motorsports Driver Development Program, Lynx Racing, Rett.org, Nearburg Exploration and Sparco USA.
Racers Edge is a former Star Mazda team that won back-to-back championships in 2002 with Guy Cosmo and 2003 with Luis Schiavo before moving up to the Grand-Am series in 2007. Under the guidance of President, Team Manager (and former driver) Jon Mirachi, Racers Edge has established itself as one of the premier teams in North American road racing with substantial achievements in both open wheel racing and sports cars. In the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex GT series, Racers Edge led three races, scoring five top-5 and ten top-10 finishes. In 2008, racing the same Mazda RX-8 they will field this season, the team again led three races and scored three top-10 finishes.
The next event on the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Schedule is at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Practice begins on Friday, August 28, with qualifying set for 5:20 - 5:35 pm that afternoon. The green flag for the 2-hour/200-mile Rolex Series race is set to wave at 2:15 pm Saturday, August 29. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED TV beginning at 2 pm ET.
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