2015 Pro Mazda Championship Explained

The 2015 Pro Mazda Championship was the 17th season in series history. The series consisted of sixteen races at nine tracks, having expanded from fourteen races in 2014; adding races at NOLA Motorsports Park, the Streets of Toronto, Iowa Speedway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, while dropping races at Houston, Milwaukee and Sonoma Raceway.^[1] The season began on March 28 at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and ended on September 13 at Laguna Seca.

Uruguay's Santiago Urrutia became the first champion from South America since Raphael Matos in 2005, driving for Team Pelfrey.^[2] Urrutia, who joined the series for the 2015 season after a year in GP3,^[3] won only three races during the season – at NOLA Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Mid-Ohio – but consistent finishing (finishing 14 of 16 races in the top-5) saw him finish 53 points clear of his nearest rival in the championship standings. Second place in the standings went to Cape Motorsports driver Neil Alberico, holding off a late-season challenge from Juncos Racing's Garett Grist for the position, by a tally of eight points. Alberico won four races during the season – which was the most by any driver, shared with Andretti Autosport's Weiron Tan – while Grist won three of the final six races including a weekend sweep at Laguna Seca.^[4]

Tan himself finished fourth in the championship, as five finishes outside the top ten as well as a five-point penalty early in the season hampered his championship bid. The championship top five was completed by France's Timothé Buret of Juncos Racing, one point behind Tan, who was a race-winner at Indianapolis. The only other race winner was Florian Latorre, a compatriot of Buret, who won on the Streets of Toronto for Cape Motorsports. He finished eighth in the drivers' championship, due to the result being one of only three podium finishes during the season. In the teams' championship, Juncos Racing won the title mainly due to the results for Grist and Buret, with other team drivers José Gutiérrez and Will Owen. Juncos finished 39 points clear of Team Pelfrey.^[4] The expert drivers' championship for older drivers was won by World Speed Motorsports driver Bobby Eberle, taking 11 class wins during 2015.^[4]

Drivers and teams

Team Drivers Rounds Andretti Autosport 22 Weiron Tan^[5] All 28 Dalton Kellett^[6] All Cape Motorsports Wayne Taylor Racing 2 Daniel Burkett^[7] All 3 Neil Alberico All 10 Florian Latorre All JDC MotorSports 19 Raoul Owens 1–5 Scott Hargrove 6–8 26 Parker Nicklin^[8] 1–8, 15–16 44 Kevin Davis (E) 6–8 54 Michael Johnson 1–2, 13–16 91 Kyle Connery^[9] 1–8, 10–11, 13–16 Juncos Racing 5 Garett Grist^[10] All 6 Timothé Buret^[11] All 7 José Gutiérrez All 23 Will Owen^[12] All Kaminsky Racing 57 Bob Kaminsky (E) 6–8, 13–14 M1 Racing 21 Victor Franzoni 6–11, 13–16 33 Carlos Conde (E) 6–8 37 Jay Horak (E) 1–2, 4–8, 10–11, 15–16 62 Bryson Schutte 10–11 Team Pelfrey^[13] 80 Raoul Owens 6–16 81 Santiago Urrutia All 82 Patricio O'Ward All World Speed Motorsports 13 Bobby Eberle (E) 1–11, 13–16 14 Alessandro Latif^[14] All

Race calendar and results

Round	Rnd	Circuit	Location	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg, Florida	March 28	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Cape Motorsports WTR
2			March 29	Neil Alberico	José Gutiérrez	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Cape Motorsports WTR
3	NOLA Motorsports Park	New Orleans, Louisiana	April 11	Weiron Tan	Patricio O'Ward	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Team Pelfrey
–			April 12	Weiron Tan	Race cancelled
4	Barber Motorsports Park	Birmingham, Alabama	April 25	Weiron Tan	Timothé Buret	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Andretti Autosport
5			April 26	Weiron Tan	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Cape Motorsports WTR
6	Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course	Speedway, Indiana	May 7^[15]	Weiron Tan	Timothé Buret	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Andretti Autosport
7			May 8	Timothé Buret	Weiron Tan	Timothé Buret	Timothé Buret	Juncos Racing
8			May 9	Santiago Urrutia	Victor Franzoni	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Team Pelfrey
9	Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis	Clermont, Indiana	May 23	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Andretti Autosport
10	Streets of Toronto	Toronto, Ontario	June 13	Florian Latorre	Florian Latorre	Florian Latorre	Florian Latorre	Cape Motorsports WTR
11			June 14	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Juncos Racing
12	Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa	July 18	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Weiron Tan	Andretti Autosport
13	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	August 1	Garett Grist	Neil Alberico	Santiago Urrutia	Santiago Urrutia	Team Pelfrey
14			August 2	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Neil Alberico	Neil Alberico	Cape Motorsports WTR
15	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	September 12	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Juncos Racing
16			September 13	Santiago Urrutia	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Garett Grist	Juncos Racing

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver STP LOU ALA IMS LOR TOR IOW MOH LAG Pts 1 Santiago Urrutia 2 4 1* C 3 2 4 3 1* 15 7 4 5 1* 3 2 2 355 2 Neil Alberico 1* 1* 6 C 4 1* 3 17 7 3 14 17 7 2 1* 16 3 302 3 Garett Grist 11 6 11 C 7 3 5 6 8 4 5 1* 11 4 9 1* 1* 294 4 Weiron Tan 16 15 2 C 1* 14 1* 4 21 1* 13 2 1* 6 7 5 9 5 Timothé Buret 17 13 3 C 2 8 2 1* 3 12 3 7 9 3 2 11 7 281 6 Patricio O'Ward 4 14 4 C 5 7 6 10 5 7 2 3 3 7 6 18 6 250 7 Will Owen 8 8 13 C 9 4 8 8 2 2 15 8 10 8 5 3 4 243 8 Florian Latorre 3 16 5 C 8 5 21 2 6 8 1* 14 8 5 17 8 18 222 9 José Gutiérrez 5 2 8 C 16 16 12 7 4 5 16 5 6 12 10 4 8 216 10 Dalton Kellett 7 7 7 C 15 6 11 13 11 13 17 DNS 2 9 8 6 5 187 11 Daniel Burkett 14 3 9 C 10 10 9 9 10 9 18 9 4 11 12 9 11 12 Raoul Owens 6 10 12 C 6 11 18 11 12 14 8 6 12 13 13 7 16 166 13 Alessandro Latif 9 17 10 C 12 12 13 14 14 10 9 13 13 14 11 12 15 140 14 Kyle Connery 10 5 14 C 17 9 20 15 13 6 10 18 14 17 10 122 15 Bobby Eberle 13 12 16 C 14 15 14 18 17 11 11 15 16 16 14 14 101 16 Victor Franzoni 10 5 19 6 4 16 10 4 19 DNS 91 17 Parker Nicklin 12 11 15 C 11 13 19 16 15 13 12 78 18 Jay Horak 15 9 13 17 Wth Wth Wth 12 12 15 17 58 19 Michael Johnson Wth Wth 15 15 10 13 31 20 Scott Hargrove 7 12 9 21 21 Bryson Schutte 10 11 21 22 Bob Kaminsky 15 19 18 17 18 12 23 Kevin Davis 16 20 16 6 24 Carlos Conde 17 21 20 2 Pos Driver STP LOU ALA IMS LOR TOR IOW MOH LAG Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th–10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position (1 point) Italics Ran fastest race lap (1 point) *|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|Led most race laps (1 point)|-|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|^1|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|Qualifying cancelled no bonus point awarded|-|style="background:Orange;" align=center colspan=2|Rookie|}|}|} Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes. The first race at the Indianapolis road course was a makeup for the canceled race at NOLA. Drivers who were not at NOLA were ineligible to score points in that race. Teams' championship Pos Team Points 1 Juncos Racing 426 2 Team Pelfrey 387 3 Cape Motorsports w/ Wayne Taylor Racing 352 4 Andretti Autosport 257 5 M1 Racing 88 6 JDC MotorSports 84 7 World Speed Motorsports 46 8 Kaminsky Racing 16 External links

Notes and References

1. News: Mazda Road to Indy 2015 schedules released. Tony. DiZinno. November 3, 2014. January 2, 2015. MotorSportsTalk. NBC Sports.
2. News: Grist Wins the Race as Urrutia Clinches the Pro Mazda Title. September 12, 2015. October 17, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.
3. News: A Nation rejoices with Urrutia, who secures title. Dave. Lewandowski. September 12, 2015. October 17, 2015. IndyCar Series. Brickyard Trademarks, Inc..
4. News: Double for Grist Promotes him to Third in Pro Mazda Points Chase. September 13, 2015. October 17, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.
5. News: Weiron Tan to drive for Andretti Autosport in Pro Mazda. Christopher. DeHarde. December 10, 2014. January 2, 2015. Motorsport.com. Motorsport.com, Inc..
6. News: Andretti Autosport signs Kellett to Pro Mazda squad. November 18, 2014. January 2, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.
7. News: Burkett Joins Cape Motorsports Pro Mazda Team. December 16, 2014. January 2, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.
8. News: Parker Nicklin Joins JDC MotorSports Four Car Line-Up. March 13, 2015. March 14, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.
9. News: Pro Mazda has Buret, Connery announcements. Tony. DiZinno. December 4, 2014. January 2, 2015. MotorSportsTalk. NBC Sports.
10. News: Grist signs with Juncos Racing for 2015. December 13, 2014. January 2, 2015. Motorsport.com. Motorsport.com, Inc..
11. News: Timothé Buret Commits to Juncos Racing for 2015 Pro Mazda Championship. December 3, 2014. January 2, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.
12. News: Indy USF2000 winner Will Owen moves to Juncos Racing, Pro Mazda Series in 2015. Jerry. Bonkowski. November 22, 2014. January 2, 2015. MotorSportsTalk. NBC Sports.
13. News: O'Ward, Urratia join Team Pelfrey. March 19, 2015. March 20, 2015. Racer. Haymarket Publications. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112126/http://www.racer.com/road-to-indy/pro-mazda/item/114550-pro-mazda-o-ward-urratia-join-team-pelfrey. April 2, 2015. dead.
14. News: Latif joins WSM team. February 16, 2015. February 16, 2015. Racer. Haymarket Publications. https://web.archive.org/web/20150216214633/http://www.racer.com/road-to-indy/pro-mazda/item/113494-pro-mazda-latif-joins-wsm-team. February 16, 2015. dead.
15. News: Tan Controls Rescheduled Pro Mazda Race. May 8, 2015. September 9, 2015. Pro Mazda Championship. Andersen Promotions.