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Team GDT’s Méndez ReadyTo Tackle an Oval

INDIANAPOLIS, May 24 — TeamGDT’s Andrés Méndez, 19, a third-generation racer from Bogotá, Co-lumbia, will compete in his firstoval-track race ever as the StarMazda Championship presented byGoodyear joins forces with twoother series for the traditional“TourHendricksCounty.com NightBefore the 500” show at Lucas OilRaceway at Indianapolis (LORI) onSaturday night.

Fans in town for the Indianapolis500 can check out one of TeamGDT’s Star Mazda cars in theMazda Road to Indy display at theBrickyard this week, but to see oneof them in action they’ll have to at-tend the Night Before the 500 showat LORI Saturday night. Mendezand his fellow competitors in theStar Mazda series, which is part ofthe official Mazda Road to Indy pro-gram to develop talent for the IZODIndyCar Series, will battle it out on

LORI’s 0.686-mile semi-bankedoval.

Spectator gates open at 2 p.m. Heatraces start at approximately 6 p.m.and features kick off at approxi-mately 7:40 p.m. The Star Mazdarace will be 100 laps or 45 minuteslong. Last year’s race went non-stop.

Méndez is a rookie in Star Mazdathis season and finishing the race is

For more info: Linda Mansfield, Restart CommunicationsCell: (317) 201-0729; E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com

Photos may be downloaded off Team GDT’s Facebook page.

Team GDT’s Méndez Ready to Tackle an Oval/Page 2 of 2

his first priority. He’d like nothingbetter than to get his first top-10 fin-ish Saturday night with the No. 53,which is sponsored by DataFile In-ternacional S.A. and Grupo Krite-rion.

Although ovals are new to Méndezracing is not, as he’s been brought upin the sport. Both his father and hisgrandfather, who are both namedGuillermo Méndez, competed inrally championships in Columbia.His grandfather was also aColumbian motorcycle champion inthe 1,200cc class, and he worked asa stunt driver for Harley Davidson.

Méndez has been competing in bothkarts and open-wheel cars for thepast four years in Colombia, Europeand the United States. His kartingcredentials include major champi-onship events in Colombia, Italy andMexico, as well as the Florida Win-ter Tour, Rotax Max Challenge, thePan-American Rotax, and the SuperKart SKUSA championships in theUnited States.

He has tested F2000 cars with theRed Bull-sponsored KorainenbrosMotorsport Team in Estoril, Portu-gal; participated in the Jim RussellFuture Driver Search and was cho-sen for the Ferrari Driver Academyas a junior future driver.

In Colombia he competed in the VanDiemen 2.0 National Championship,and he is a three-time winner of the6 Horas de Bogotá race, one of themost important motorsport events inLatin America, driving a VanDiemen sports racer.

He is with a top team. In 2011 TeamGDT won its second Expert Serieschampionship in a row withdriver/team owner J.W. Roberts,who won the Expert class at thisevent last year but is not scheduledto compete at LORI on Saturday.The Expert Series is a race-within-a-race and a championship-within-a-championship for drivers 30 andolder.

The Dallas-based team’s manager isPaul Mata, who was formerly thelead mechanic for Team ASF and theteam manager for Team Extreme’sStar Mazda program. Veteran EricPurcell, who worked with 2008 StarMazda champion John Edwards, isthe engineer for Mendez’s car.Chuck West, a former Formula At-

lantic driver who was the 1993 StarMazda champion, is the team’sdriver, fitness and nutrition coach.

Mendez recorded 254 laps in testingat LORI on May 5. He’ll have threemore hours of testing there tomor-row from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. beforeSaturday’s race.

More information, including livetiming and scoring, can be found onthe series’ Web site atStarMazda.com. The series is alsocovered on the Mazda MotorsportsHour on the Velocity network.

Fans can learn more about TeamGDT on its Facebook page orthrough Twitter @TeamGDT.