Tooele, Utah.  Driving the #14 CDE Collision Damage Experts Pro Formula Mazda, Eric Freiberg, of Homer Glen, Illinois earned a seventh place finish in Round Two of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at Miller Motorsports Park during the American Le Mans Series Utah Grand Prix race weekend.

“This weekend was a bit of an emotional roller coaster and it felt like we put the team through the wringer but everyone was excited with the strong finish,” Freiberg commented. “I was able to get a good pull off of the line for our standing start and was gaining positions when the caution flag came out on the opening lap for an incident behind me in turn one.  The single file restart when the race went back to green again made it a challenge to keep that momentum going but the car was spot on and I was putting together consistent laps towards the end of the race.”

The practice sessions started on a positive note for Freiberg, who posted the third fastest time in the opening practice session of the weekend, but as practice continued the high-altitude of Utah revealed an engine that was a little down on power. “The car felt great that first session but we didn’t have the horsepower as everyone else and I was down seven miles an hour at the end of the front straight,” Freiberg explained.

“The team decided that the engine needed to come out and my mechanics Jan and Ming did a great job swapping things out without me having to miss a session.  Thankfully my engineer Mike Doyle had the setup worked out and when we went back on track we were back towards the front of the field.”

The World Speed Motorsport pilot would qualify eighth overall despite the earlier issues and with the seventh place finish would move up to seventh overall in the championship. “Points are really important in this series so I’m happy to come away from the event with a solid finish. Now the team is heading to Road America to do some testing and I’m looking forward to our next race at Watkins Glen at the start of June.”