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Andersen Racing's Hall Earns Second Starting Spot
For Star Mazda Season Opener at Sebring
 
SEBRING, Fla., March 13 - Andersen Racing's Charles Hall only had two laps to 
get down to business in Star Mazda qualifying Thursday afternoon at Sebring 
International Raceway, but he was up to the challenge.
 
A red flag just two laps into the Star Mazda series' fastest group's 
qualifying session gave its drivers only enough time to complete two additional flying 
laps before time ran out. Hall made the most of the opportunity, rising from 
fifth at the break in the action to second at the end of the session.
 
Hall, whose arrangement to compete in this race only gelled last week, 
changed his car number from 22 to 77 because he said 77 is a luckier number. 
Apparently it is, as he'll share Row 1 with polesitter Joel Miller thanks to a 
qualifying time that was just 1.091 seconds off Miller's best lap.  Hall's Pardoes 
Solicitors-sponsored entry's best lap was done in 2:01.542 for an average speed 
of 109.592 miles an hour for the bumpy, 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course.
 
Despite it being his first Star Mazda race ever, the driver from Sheffield, 
England was able to get the series' brand-new Goodyear radial tires to come in 
fast enough on the restart. He'll have another challenge in the 45-minute race 
at 2:50 p.m. tomorrow, when the series stages its first standing start ever.
 
The great qualifying result was a big boost for Hall, who is resuming his 
career after receiving serious injuries in a traffic accident caused by a drunk 
driver in 2005. It also was cause for celebration by the team's sponsor, Allied 
Building Products Corp.
 
Hall was fifth-fastest to Miller at the end of lap two when the second- and 
third-place cars of Ernesto Otero and Alex Ardoin brought out the red flag.  
Otero ended up in a tire wall at the exit of Turn 5, and Ardoin came to a halt 
with mechanical difficulties in Turn 7. Two other Andersen Racing drivers, Tom 
Gladdis and Yannick Hofman, were right behind Hall in the standings in sixth 
and seventh during the pause in the action. 
 
There was only time for two more flying laps, but Hall made the most of them 
to rise to second in the qualifying rundown. 
 
Otero and Ardoin weren't penalized for bringing out the red, so when the 
final starting line-up was posted Andersen Racing's Peter Dempsey of Ashbourne, 
County Meath, Ireland was sixth with his No. 21.  Gladdis, of Gibraltar, ended 
up ninth in the Marrache & Co. No. 5. Hofman, who is from Rosemere, Quebec, was 
tenth in the Jig-A-Loo No. 00.  Juliana Gonzalez of Mexico City, Mexico, who 
was one of the stars of the first group's qualifying session, will start 17th 
in tomorrow's race in the fifth Andersen Racing entry, the No. 11.
 
Gladdis was the fastest of the five Andersen Racing drivers in five practice 
sessions here. Dempsey topped everyone in the second test session Monday, with 
Gladdis second.
 
Miller's pole was not a new track record.  That is still held by Dane 
Cameron, who set the mark last year. In 2006 Andersen Racing won the pole for this 
race with a new track record set by Brad Jaeger, and also the race itself with 
Gerardo Bonilla's entry.  Both are driving Prototypes now; Jaeger in the Rolex 
Series and Bonilla in the ALMS.
 
Tomorrow afternoon's 45-minute race supports Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours 
of Sebring American Le Mans Series season opener. It is scheduled to be shown 
on SPEED at 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, March 30.
 
The second Star Mazda race of the year is slated for May 17 at Miller 
Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. The series will then appear at Watkins Glen 
International in Watkins Glen, N.Y. on June 7, which replaces the cancelled Houston 
date. The complete schedule and other information are posted on the series' Web 
site at starmazda.com. The team's Web site is at andersenracingteam.com. 
 
The Andersen Racing drivers' post-qualifying quotes follow:
 
Charles Hall: "To be on the front row in my first race in two years and my 
first Star Mazda race ever, I'm just over the moon with the results and the car 
that Andersen Racing gave me.  
 
"The red flag forced us all to try to go as fast as we could as quickly as we 
could.  I just tried to get the most I could get out of the tires.