Atlanta: Edwards captures fourth victory!

John Edwards captured his fourth victory of the season this afternoon at Road Atlanta. The rookie driver finished just a tad over five seconds to second-place finisher and fellow championship contender Joel Miller. Current points leader and polesitter Peter Dempsey was penalized for unavoidable contact and sent back to finish a disappointing 19th. The Star Mazda Series raced at Road Atlanta as part of the Petit Le Mans weekend.

The race was not without incident or excitement. Miller passed Dempsey right at the beginning and had a nice lead until the caution came out on lap 11 for Charles Hall. The caution was long, a total of seven laps, because corner works had to clean up oil. The green finally waved on lap 18, only to go back to yellow again for J.C. Kester and Valle Makela. This caution lasted a total of five laps. With four minutes to go the field dashed back to green.

That last four-minute dashed proved pivotal for some and devastating to others. Dempsey and fellow championship contender Alex Ardoin made contact and dropped back in the pack. Ardoin was credited with 18th. Dempsey crossed the line in 14th, but officials dropped him to 19th because of the unavoidable contact with Ardoin. Edwards was able to maintain his cool and crossed the line first.

With his victory Edwards is now only three points behind Dempsey; Miller is another five points behind Edwards. Ardoin, Hall and Tom Gladdis are the other three drivers who have a mathematical chance at the championship. The overall championship is not the only battle going on. Even though JW Roberts won the race, Chris Cumming won the overall championship in the Expert Series. Gerald Kraut won in the Master series, but Chuck Hulse emerged as the overall championship winner.

The fight for the 2008 Star Mazda championship will conclude in two weeks at the historic Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca, CA. Official practice begins on Friday October 17th. Qualifying gets underway early on the 17th with the race being that same afternoon.

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