Dempsey heartbreak in US

Ireland's Peter Dempsey saw his attempts to win the Star Mazda Motor Racing series in the US ended in massive disappointment when the Ashbourne driver failed to finish the final round in Laguna Seca California.

Winner of five races during the season and the pole-sitter for the final, Dempsey only needed to finish sixth or better to clinch the championship.

Things looked good for the 23 year old former Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the year when he took pole position, but he was outmanoeuvred at the start by the JDC team mates of Adam Christodoulou and Alex Ardoin who slipped by into first and second place.

Shuffled back to third before turn two, Dempsey was then hit from behind by Joel Miller entering the corkscrew turn, spinning the Irish racer off-course and dropping him to last place.

Dempsey managed to get back on track and return to the battle, moving quickly up through the field despite aerodynamic and mechanical damage to the front of his Juncos Racing car.

He was back up to 11th by the mid-point of the race, setting the fastest race lap in the process.

However in his desperate attempts to get back into the top 10 he had multiple contacts with the Mitchell Motorsports car of Rusty Mitchell and the resulting damage to his car put him out of the race and he was credited with a 23rd-place finish.

The failure to win the championship means that Dempsey missed out on a $100,000 bonus and a fully funded drive in the American Formula Atlantic series in 2010 worth in the region of $700,000

The series went Christodoulou who took the race win and with it the championship leaving Dempsey in despair having come so close to winning the prestigious series.

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