Busy Weekend in San Jose California
July 31, 2007 - Jensen MotorSport had a busy weekend at the San Jose Grand Prix. The team ran three cars in the Champ Car Atlantic series for drivers Frankie Muniz (#13 Chandler Developments), Tom Sutherland (#2 ClickAway Computers), and Steve Ott (#22 Intervision / Juniper Networks / NetApp).

Muniz achieved the best result of the trio, scoring an 11th place finish in the Sunday final. Muniz made several passes during the race, earning enough championship points to pass team mate Sutherland, plus Mike Forest and Brian Thienes in the season point standings.

The team has a one week break before hitting the track again at Road America in Wisconsin the weekend of August 10-12.

Source: www.jensenmotorsport.com

San Jose Race
July 30, 2007 - Another good weekend - Frankie finished in 11th place earning himself a further 10 points. For the second time this season he also managed to get the bonus point for moving up the most positions, having started the race in 24th place. His season points now stand at 38.

He will be heading to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in just under 2 weeks time for the final race in this years Champ Car Atlantic season.

Edmonton Grand Prix Race Review
July 23, 2007 - Frankie Muniz and Tom Sutherland travelled west to compete in the 3rd annual Edmonton Grand Prix this past weekend. The event was doubly important to the season championship, with two races held over the weekend.

Muniz, driving the #13 Chandler Developments car, continued his streak of scoring points with a 17th place finish in Race #1. Muniz then had a strong race #2 of the weekend, placing in 15th position following the post race disqualification of the car of Adrian Carrio. Muniz made one of the best passes of the weekend late in Race #2, as he chased down the car driven by veteran driver Mike Forest and completed a daring pass under the brakes in Turn 1. Muniz is now 24th in the season point standings, but with another strong finish at San Jose next weekend he will pass two more drivers as he continues to develop his competitiveness during his rookie Atlantic season.

Source: www.jensenmotorsport.com

Race 2 at Edmonton
July 23, 2007 - Frankie had another good result in yesterdays second race at the City Centre Airport temporary street circuit in Edmonton. He started in 23rd place, but managed to improve on Saturday's race and finish in 16th place. His season points now stand at 27.

> Full results

Race 1 at Edmonton
July 22, 2007 - Yesterday saw the first race at City Centre Airport temporary street circuit in Edmonton, Canada. Frankie started the race in 23rd place, but managed to finish in 17th earning himself a further 4 points and putting him just 1 point behind fellow team mate Tom Sutherland.

> Full results

Malcolm in the fast lane
July 20, 2007 - Former sitcom star here to compete in Atlantic series race - EDMONTON - He was never the one scaling the neighbourhood fence, looking for the next boyhood adventure. He was a tap and jazz dance student, a child actor. He was Malcolm in the Middle.

But 16 months ago, Frankie Muniz walked away from Hollywood and stepped into a race car.

He traded in money and fame for octane and adrenaline.

"There's probably less of a guarantee for me as an actor just because it's all about being wanted. Not about performance. Not anymore," said Muniz, who is in Edmonton to drive in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship.

"There are people I can name right now who are getting paid $10 million for a movie, and they're horrific but they're big celebrities.

"And I didn't really like being in a world like that.

"I like this, because if I put my mind to it and work hard enough and if I do well on the track, that's it. You can't tell me I'm not good. I like that aspect a lot more.

"And I do think I have a future in racing -- if not as a driver then as an owner," says Muniz, 21.

"I want to be involved in the sport."

Sitting in his team's steamy paddock at the City Centre Airport, the site of this weekend's races, Muniz spoke about the shift from TV star to speed demon.

No longer is he playing a role, he's now playing catch-up, given that most of the racers he competes against grew up driving go-karts.

"I had no idea I was going to be a race car driver. I had no idea I wanted to be a race car driver, but I'm not bad," he said. "And I'm very competitive, so it's very satisfying to have a good result or to beat guys on the track.

"Even if I qualify in the back, I'm always running with people. I'm right there. That really pushes me too, knowing I'm as good as I am after 16 months."

Then again, he never took acting lessons either, but at the age of 13 was cast as Malcolm, the boy-genius who ended up anchoring an award-winning sitcom that aired for seven seasons.

He's done voice-over work on The Simpsons, had major roles in the films My Dog Skip, Big Fat Liar and Agent Cody Banks, and there are three more movies still set for release.

There are no other projects in the works -- except the one that revolves around his No. 13 Chandler Team Jensen Mazda-Cosworth. That is where his focus lies. It is why he has a personal trainer, why he has put 23 pounds on his small frame. Why he will be on the track today for the first qualifying run.

By 2010, Muniz is certain he'll have graduated from the Atlantic series to the Champ Car circuit.

"I played all kinds of sports, but I was afraid to go up the stairs at waterparks. I mean, I'm not afraid to drive fast but I was afraid of heights, of roller-coasters. I wasn't a crazy daredevil kid.

"I was the one who was afraid to climb the fence and break into the school to go play basketball. But I've always loved cars, I've loved watching racing, and now I'm doing it at a very high level, and it's amazing. I'm really enjoying myself."

The bug first bit in 2005 when Muniz won a celebrity race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. He was looking to buy a NASCAR team and tossed out the idea that he should go for a test ride for owner Eric Jensen. "I think he reluctantly said yes, just because he was testing real drivers, but after the second day he signed me for two years."

Last season, Muniz made his professional debut in the Formula BMW circuit. What followed were seven Atlantic starts that saw him finish no better than 19th, but lately Malcolm has moved into the middle of the pack.

He roared into ninth place in the July 8 race in Toronto, and now he's here in Edmonton, where there will be races on Saturday and again on Sunday.

"It's all about building confidence," he said. "You have to be confident that the car is going to stick and I had to be confident in myself.

"I know when I first looked at the Atlantic car it scared me. The thought of driving it a year ago was crazy, but now I am and I'm doing pretty well.

"I do hope to be doing this for a really long time."

Joanne Ireland, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, July 20

Source: www.canada.com

Best Career Result for Muniz in Toronto
July 9, 2007 - The skies opened with a torrential downpour about a minute after the green flag start of the Toronto Grand Prix this weekend. What an incredible mix of fortunes the weather was for the Jensen MotorSport team-mates Frankie Muniz and Tom Sutherland.

Frankie Muniz, driving the #13 Chandler Development sponsored car, navigated the multiple wrecks all race long to finish a career best 9th place. Muniz stated, “It was treacherous out there today, but once I saw that so many cars weren’t going to finish, I took extra caution just to finish since I knew that if I finished, I would score a lot of championship points.”

Team owner Eric Jensen states, “It was a terrific result for Frankie Muniz. At the end of the year, people look mostly at your finishing results in the point standings, and the 14 points collected by Frankie today substantially elevate his ranking. It is just such a shame that Tom Sutherland seemingly is without luck this season. Tom has been consistently quick, but so often circumstance beyond his control seems to deny him the results we all know are within his capability.”

Next up for the team is the Edmonton Grand Prix in Alberta Canada on July 20-22.

Source: www.jensenmotorsport.com

Top 10 finish for Frankie
July 8, 2007 - An exciting race weekend in Toronto, with todays main race seeing lots of action due to heavy rain. Frankie started todays race at the back of the grid, but managed to stay focused despite the weather conditions, and finish in 9th place. This is Frankie's best finish yet, and a great result for both him and the Toronto based racing team Jensen Motorsport. Frankie earns a further 14 points following todays race, which includes the bonus point he claimed for improving the most starting positions after starting 23rd. His season points now stand at 18.

> More info...

Not in the middle any more
July 7, 2007 - Frankie Muniz, the actor famous for his turn as the title character in TV's Malcolm in the Middle, had his left wrist tattooed not long after he began his career as a professional race-car driver last year.

The ink is an image of twin checkered flags surrounded by ornate script that reads, "Please Keep Me Very Safe." As life-defining scribblings of would-be champions go, it's not exactly "Live Fast or Die." But then, Muniz, 21, isn't your average speed freak. He's the rare former child actor who's never checked into rehab, let alone ingested a drop of alcohol. (And he's got another tattoo, of the word "ZERO," that signifies what he calls his "zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol.")

He's also the rare aspiring racer who is attempting to overcome a seemingly insurmountable disadvantage in experience. While most of his rivals in the Champ Car Atlantic Series – a minor-league loop that will take the track in the lead-up to tomorrow's Toronto Grand Prix – spent their childhoods zooming around in various motorized racing machines, Muniz charted a less obvious course.

"I took tap and jazz class," he said.

He only stepped into a competitive driver's seat in 2005, when he won a celebrity race in Long Beach, Calif. He's been racing full-time for all of 16 months. So perhaps it was no surprise that yesterday's Atlantic-series provisional qualifying session turned into yet another episode of Malcolm in the Back. Muniz, who has placed no better than 19th in seven races, qualified 22nd out of 22 drivers. He was more than a half-second behind the next-slowest driver, more than two seconds slower than the quickest. In other words, race organizers weren't rushing to purchase a magnum of non-alcoholic champagne for tomorrow's post-race podium.

"A lot of times, I'm a little timid," Muniz said. " I could pass somebody, but I kinda hang back because you risk crashing. And I'd rather finish the race than crash. My driver coach says, `No, no, no. You need to be aggressive and you need to learn to push ...'

"And it's not that I think, `Oh, God. I could get hurt.' I just don't want to crash because a) I don't want to pay for the crash damage, and b) then you're just stuck watching on the sidelines."

Muniz, the New Jersey-born kid who wrapped up a six-year run as boy-genius Malcolm Wilkerson with the show's 2006 finale, watched Hollywood's recreational fast lane from a safe distance. Of the show-business peers who've become gossip-mag fodder, Muniz shrugged: "I never really got into hanging out with those people. I did the work and I left, and I went home and I went to sleep."

This is not to suggest that Muniz is a total killjoy. He was one of the lucky few zipping down Lake Shore Boulevard doing a perfectly legal 250-some km/h yesterday afternoon. And he did have the good fortune of stepping out of his team's trailer to see a lithe young blonde woman offer him a warm smile. His girlfriend?

Muniz rolled his eyes and smiled: "Maybe."

Indeed, the young man has options. He's in a couple of movies set for release. He buys and sells luxury cars often enough that he says he has never owned a car long enough to have its oil changed. (His drive du jour, this after unloading a Maserati that didn't turn his crank, is a Mercedes-Benz E63).

But racing, he said, is his life. So how, exactly, will a straight-edged tap dancer find a way to thrust a lead foot to the ragged edge?

"You've got to be crazy, which I'm building – I'm building the craziness factor into my life," he said. "But it's tough mentally to tell yourself, `Go faster,' even though you already feel like you're about to crash."

Source: www.thestar.com

BMO Financial Group with Montreal based Jensen MotorSport Racing Team
July 2 , 2007 - Mont Tremblant, Quebec: July 2, 2007 – BMO Financial Group is pleased to announce a partnership with Montreal based Champ Car Atlantic team, Jensen MotorSport.

Beginning at the Mont Tremblant Champ Car Grand Prix, June 29th – July 1st, BMO Financial Group will be featured on both Jensen MotorSport race cars of Tom Sutherland and Frankie Muniz.

“This is an exciting new partnership for our bank”, says Jacques Menard, President, BMO Financial Group, Quebec. “There is a large community of businesses active in the global racing industry, and partnering with Jensen MotorSport will provide us with effective exposure to that community and racing fans.”

“It is with great pride that we announce a partnership with BMO Financial Group”, says Eric Jensen, President of Jensen MotorSport. “Our team is committed to a long-term future in Quebec with team operations in a race shop located in downtown Montreal. We are well established as a home team for Quebec racing fans, and we plan to grow that identity. BMO can leverage that team identity both at home and in the international racing community, and together we hope to win both on the track, and with some major international banking deals.”

Media who wish to have photos with the new look BMO Financial Group / Jensen MotorSport race cars are welcome to visit the team Saturday afternoon at the Mont Tremblant race at 3:30 pm (June 30th). To schedule interviews with Jensen MotorSport team members, contact the team via e-mail at team@jensenmotorsport.com or visit the team in the Champ Car Atlantic paddock at the circuit.

About BMO Financial Group:

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $357 billion as at April 30, 2007, and more than 35,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions. BMO Financial Group serves clients across Canada through its Canadian retail arm, BMO Bank of Montreal, and through its wealth management firms BMO Nesbitt Burns, BMO InvestorLine and BMO Harris Private Banking. BMO Capital Markets, our North American investment and corporate banking division, provides a full suite of financial products and services to our North American and international clients. In the United States, BMO serves clients through Chicago-based Harris, an integrated financial services organization that provides more than one million personal and business clients with banking, lending, investing, financial planning, trust administration, portfolio management, family office and wealth transfer services.
For more information, visit www.bmo.com.

About Jensen MotorSport:

Jensen MotorSport is a professional car racing team competing in the Champ Car Atlantic championship. The team is fielding two cars in the 2007 championship for drivers Frankie Muniz and Tom Sutherland. Frankie Muniz is already well known for his Hollywood acting career starring in the hit television show “Malcolm in the Middle”.

For more information visit www.jensenmotorsport.com or via e-mail at team@jensenmotorsport.com

Source: www.jensenmotorsport.com