This Week in STARS (Chicagoland)

Welcome to STARS Weekly, a new show where we will look over the week’s events following the STARS weekends.

This week, the STARS Lowe’s International Series and Kobalt Tools Truck Series both took to Chicagoland Speedway for the first race of the playoffs. For the first time this year, the LIS cars took to the track first on Sunday afternoon as rain delays saw the Saturday KTTS race delayed until Sunday night.

Week In Review

In a remotely clean event, Honoka Kousaka lead 96 of the events 134 laps to take home a comfortable win over fellow playoff driver Evie Vance. Kousaka’s µ’s Autosport teammate You Watanabe finished third, with ATK Motorsports driver Madison Baszler in fourth and Daniel Leckliter in fifth. Fan favourite KTTS driver Amy Prowell was the best non-playoff driver on the day, bringing home an impressive sixth place finish for the youngster.
The events only caution came out for a careless move from Sylvia Renou when she turned Aurora Sullivan in front of the midfield portion of the pack on lap 4. This ruined the day of playoff drivers Misaki Andou, who made hard contact with the wall, and Kay Douglas, who also slapped the wall. Despite continuing, Andou only managed to get a 38th place finish from the race, and Douglas got 37th.

Despite her poor run, Andou was not the worst ranking playoff driver in the field, as an early gearbox issue on Grant Macintosh’s Chevrolet saw him sidelined for the majority of the race, while Corbin Rhodes’ engine spectacularly expired just after his pit stop.
The Kobalt Tools Truck Series arguably brought the more action-packed event, as Mikazuki Augus held off late charges from Harper Bradshaw and Robby Kane to start his playoffs with a win. Piper Wolfe (fourth), Makina Irisu (fifth), Aya Maruyama (seventh) and Umi Sonoda (eighth) all also made good progress to start their playoffs, while others faltered.

A lap 1 accident ruined the chances of Neveah Laughlin, as she squeezed eventual winner Mikazuki Augus into the wall, which saw Augus go on his side, making the Japanese drivers win even more impressive.

While Laughlin’s race was not over, a later incident essentially sealed her fate as she spun out of turn 2 to bring out the second caution. While recovering, Laughlin pulled into the racing line, causing a dramatic crash which saw Minoru Michinoku flip over in turn 3. This ended the race of the top two in points before the playoffs, Amy Prowell and Yoshiko Tsushima; to both of their disdains.

On top of the action at Chicagoland, sister series AAS had a race at Road America which saw series veteran Thomas Maxwell take the checkered flag in a caution free event, with the only incident being for Ami Futami and three-time AAS champion Bronte Anderson colliding with two laps to go. Former Kobalt Tools Trucks Series driver Bob Boyd continued his surprisingly strong season with a third-place finish from the pole at the Wisconsin road course.

Grading the Playoffs

In this segment, we will be grading the performance of all the STARS LIS playoff drivers in the first race at Chicagoland. At the end, we will predict what the points will look like at the end of the playoffs.

Honoka Kousaka (1st) – A+
An incredibly convincing performance sees Honoka Kousaka rocket to the top of the standings. Kousaka started 11th, drove to the front quickly and won the race with relative ease, as her driving and strategy proved to be perfect. There is nothing negative you can say about Kousaka’s performance.

Evie Vance (2nd) – A
Vance has been quietly making her way up the standings after her horror start to the season, but it’s safe to say the Californian has found her feet in the car again. Vance started 7th and finished 2nd, running behind Kousaka for practically the whole race. Great performance by Vance.

You Watanabe (3rd) – A
Another driver who has been making her way up the standings, Watanabe was in the mid-twenties in points a few weeks ago, but now sits third in points after the same race result. Watanabe’s performance was spirited as she did a good job holding off Baszler at the end of the race.

Madison Baszler (4th) – A
Baszler made quiet progress throughout the race but made her moves when it mattered at the end. Even though she lost the position battle to Watanabe late, it is still an outstanding day for Baszler which gives her and the team hope for the playoffs.

Daniel Leckliter (5th) – A-
Leckliter ran much like he has for the entire season… under the radar. Leckliter’s strategy was fantastic, and earned him a top 5 finish, but had Amy Prowell in sixth had a few more laps then she would have passed the American. Nevertheless, Leckliter put together a good race.

Lillie Corden (8th) – B+
Lillie Corden was very quiet in the race as she battled with Joe Branch for the majority of the event, eventually winning the battle. Corden strategy was solid and she finished around where she is expected to.

Joe Branch (9th) – A-
The only reason Branch ranks higher than Corden is because he recovered from hitting the wall early on and dropping into the mid-teens to get himself a very good top 10 finish. Strategy and pit work have been the #3 car’s downfall this year, but they seemed to have gotten over those issues.

Ben Atkins (12th) – A
Atkins looked well on his way to getting a top 5 finish as the #27 car looked fast off the hauler; much like most of the season. However, Atkins had an issue mid-race which saw him lose a lot of time. Crew chief Aya Maruyama kept his out for as long as he needed to be out, before pitting the car early, recovering a solid day. This comeback proves why the #27 team continues to be a favourite for the title.

Ruby Mayberry (13th) – B
Unusually, regular season champion Ruby Mayberry was a non-factor for the entire weekend at Chicagoland, except qualifying where she qualified on the outside of the front row. Mayberry dropped back early and never recovered.

Ruby Kurosawa (18th) – B-
Ruby Kurosawa ran in the top 10 early in the race, but dropped back after the final pitstop, having to settle for a top 20 finish. Kurosawa will need to find her early season form if she wants a shot at this championship.

Caitlin Conway (30th) – D-
Caitlin Conway seemed completely out of touch today as this was the best she ran all day, despite starting 5th. The team missed the setup today, and Kingslayer will need to improve if they want to shock the world.

Kay Douglas (37th) – C
It’s impossible to fault Douglas for her early issues as Sylvia Renou’s brainless move ruined her day. Douglas should be able to find the speed she had before the playoffs, and hopefully the poor start does not effect the team too much.

Misaki Andou (38th) – C
Again, it is impossible to fault Misaki Andou for what happened in the race, and again, Andou has been one of the strongest competitors all season. I’m confident the #88 will recover from this bad result.

Lilly Samson (39th) – B
Lilly Samson ran in the top 5 for the entire day until she had a tire come apart after hitting debris in the last run of the race. If it wasn’t for this, Samson would have finished well inside the top 5.  Luck was not her side today.

Corbin Rhodes (40th) – C-
Corbin Rhodes was not on his way to an overly stellar day when his engine expired late in the race but he still deserved better than 40th. Hopefully Hadaway Racing have the assets to recover from the bad start to the chase.

Grant Macintosh (41st) – Ungraded
It’s unfortunately impossible to grade Macintosh’s performance as it is impossible to judge what he did in the 5 laps he was in the race before a mechanical issue took him out of the race.

Chase Predictions (after week 1)
1. Honoka Kousaka
2. Ben Atkins
3. Evie Vance
4. Ruby Mayberry
5. You Watanabe
6. Misaki Andou
7. Joe Branch
8. Kay Douglas
9. Grant Macintosh
10. Madison Baszler
11. Lilly Samson
12. Lillie Corden
13. Daniel Leckliter
14. Ruby Kurosawa
15. Caitlin Conway
16. Corbin Rhodes

This Week in Silly Season

Silly Season has continued to be truly silly as it was announced that Kingslayer Racing are set to replace Texas Motor Speedway winner Sadie McDowell with Trucks star Aya Maruyama in 2024. Maruyama had previously been slated to drive the #27 ATK Motorsports car, replacing Ben Atkins, but she later stepped down from the ride with a desire to continue her crew chief career. However, it appears Maruyama has had a change of heart and will indeed have her rookie season in LIS. It’s currently unknown where McDowell will end up, but there are rumours that she could end up with RoadRunner Racing as Fortnite could be willing to fund her move and more.

Satou Medical are looking for a replacement for Sylvia Renou as the team continue to attempt to establish themselves as a frontrunning team. SM have already replaced Arisa Ichigaya with Makina Irisu and are set to bring in Amane Suou to replace Rosemary Black, who is heading back to Trucks. SM are allegedly interested in a swap deal with RA Racing, which would see Lacey Starling head to the #9 while Sylvia Renou returns to the #66.

Jack Kelley-Whitt is likely to join Renou at RA Racing, as he is being slated to return to the team, replacing Connor Swift. Swift is likely to retire from the sport. His current teammate, Barney Ward, could be heading to Hadaway Racing to replace the outgoing Corbin Rhodes as he joined Macintosh Motorsports, Inc.

Ohara Enterprises are looking to promote Kanan Matsuura to LIS after she has had an impressive season in KTTS. Matsuura has not forayed into LIS racing before, and therefore she would be entered into a competitive ROTY battle, boasting of Amy Prowell, Umi Sonoda, Mikazuki Augus, Harper Bradshaw, Emi Satou and more.


That is everything for this week! Tune in next time after the events at the tripleheader weekend at Charlotte!