The International Motor Sports Association and Cooper Tires announced today a new partnership highlighted by the renaming of IMSA’s prototype development series to the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship. It will feature an expanded schedule and a points restructuring that will make one of the sanctioning body’s most competitive championships even tighter.

Cooper Tire has an established history in motorsport with involvement in a tremendous variety of series including road racing and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its core position as using racing to improve its passenger tire offerings lines up well with other IMSA championships including the American Le Mans Series.

“We are excited to be partnering with IMSA on the 2010 Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship,” said Chris Pantani, Director of Motorsports for Cooper Tires. “Being involved with a prestigious road racing organization such as IMSA allows Cooper's Research & Development efforts to be showcased both on the track and on the road. Driving business back to our Dealers is an integral part of our motorsports program. It’s an example of what wins on Sunday, sells on Monday.”

A two-race weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca ranks among the highlights of next season’s calendar, one that sees eight visits to the continent’s premier permanent road courses. All seven venues from the 2008 season return to the schedule – including Sebring, New Jersey Motorsports Park near Philadelphia, Road America, Mosport near Toronto and Road Atlanta.

To aid in developing drivers for a potential move into the American Le Mans Series, the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship will feature a multi-class format – L1, L2 and L3. The premier L1 class features Elan Motorsports Technologies’ DP02 prototype powered by a 2.3-liter Mazda MP2 engine. West Racing’s WX10 and WR1000 chassis are eligible in the L2 class, powered by 1,000cc motors from Kawasaki or Suzuki. Elan’s DP08 with a 2.3-liter Mazda MZR-R competes in the L3 class.

Not surprisingly, each round of the 2010 Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship will be held in support of the American Le Mans Series – with the exception of the June 26-27 dates at New Jersey. The partnership with Cooper Tire also allows IMSA to continue developing new and up-and-coming road racing talent in North America for the present and the future. The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship platform will play its role in accomplishing that aim for the fifth consecutive season through promotional programs such as the $500 Cooper Tire Pole Position Award to the fastest qualifier on each event weekend. Cooper also will institute a discount program for series teams to purchase passenger tires for trucks, transporters and company cars.

In addition, IMSA introduced a new wrinkle for the 2010 season. All drivers will count their best 13 races of the season toward the championship standings. The move ensures the closest and hotly contested title race the series has seen.

International Motor Sports Association
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is the premier sanctioning body for road racing in North America. Since its establishment in 1969, IMSA has conducted hundreds of auto races on a variety of permanent and temporary racing circuits in the United States and Canada. Each year, IMSA awards millions of dollars in prize money, bonus awards and series point funds to the various winners. The headquarters office for IMSA is located in Braselton, Ga. For more information, visit www.imsa-lites.com.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is a global company that specializes in the design, manufacture, marketing and sales of passenger car and light truck tires and subsidiaries that specialize in medium truck, motorcycle and racing tires. With headquarters in Findlay, Ohio, Cooper Tire has manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design facilities within its family of companies located in 10 countries around the world. For more information, visit Cooper Tire's Web site at www.coopertire.com.

2010 COOPER TIRES PROTOTYPE LITES CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
March 18-19      Sebring International Raceway / Sebring, Fla.
May 21-23         Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca / Monterey, Calif.
June 26-27        New Jersey Motorsports Park / Millville, New Jersey
July 9-11            Miller Motorsports Park / Salt Lake City, Utah
July 23-24          Lime Rock Park / Lakeville, Conn. (1 Race Event)
August 20-22     Road America / Elkhart Lake, Wis.
August 27-29     Mosport International Raceway / Bowmanville, Ontario, CA.
Sept. 30-Oct 1   Road Atlanta (Petit Le Mans) / Braselton, Ga

Subject to Change   Each Event will have 2 – 30 minute races unless otherwise noted

After months of discussions, negotiations and planning, the 2010 IMSA Lites season/schedule is finalized (see below) and there are some big changes for the L2 class and the IMSA Lites series as a whole. Read on for the details!

WEST THE EXCLUSIVE MANUFACTURER FOR L2 THROUGH 2012: West will continue to be the exclusive manufacturer for the L2 class next season (as well as through 2012). The partnership has been cemented between IMSA as well as Elan and all parties are now on the same page and working towards making the series bigger and better for all.

MAJOR RULE CHANGES FOR THE L2 CLASS: Two major rule changes for the L2 class will be the allowance of the Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine (sealed) as well as a reduction in minimum weight for the West cars. These two rules will not only bring the front-running L2 cars closer up the overall grid for better overall competition in the series, but more importantly will make the West a truly cross-platform car between IMSA Lites and SCCA club racing! Owners of the West WR1000 will still be able to run their cars in 2010 without modification, but will have the option to use the GSXR sealed engine and/or upgrade their cars to WX10 specifications, either partially or completely. Official rules will be posted soon.

NEW WEBSITE: For 2010 IMSA will be strongly focusing on the Prototype Lites series, with better marketing and exposure for its participants. A brand new website will be coming online shortly with a new overhauled design, quick and timely updates of all information (standings, news releases, photos, etc), easy navigation, driver's pages, forums, and a new multimedia section.

“BEST OF” POINTS SCORING: For 2010, only your top 13 points races will count towards the championship. This allows participants to miss an event, or drop several races that they did poorly in and still have equal footing for the season championship.

CASH PRIZES AND CONTINGENCY AWARDS: Championship contenders will be racing for more than just trophies in 2010. Cash prizes will be awarded for class champions as well as contingency prizes being awarded at each event. Details coming soon.

All of this adds up to a championship that will be more exciting than ever for next season! For more information on the Prototype Lites series or West Race Cars, contact West at (800) 288-WEST.

West Race Cars and driver Aaron Steer have finished off the Australian 2009 race season in the best way possible with pole in qualifying and three race wins at the final round of the 2009 NSW Supersports Championship held at Oran Park.  A total of five West WR1000 1liter cars were among the mammoth field of 32 entries, including many Radical cars with much more powerful motors, but in qualifying it was Steer in the West that took pole with a time of 1:08.0996 seconds on the Oran Park Grand Prix layout.

Second and third fastest were the 1500cc Radical SR3 models of Peter Opie and Geoff Brunsdon followed by Mark Laucke in his Laucke-Flour-Mill sponsored WEST 4th fastest .  Graeme Cook was 9th fastest in his WEST, with fellow WEST competitors Greg Steer and, Ulrich Sherry 22nd and 24th respectively.

Race 1 saw Aaron Steer get a blistering start together with Mark Laucke who launched his machine from the second row of the grid for a WEST one/two across the line at the end of the race with the Radical of Peter Opie claiming third position. Graham Cook (WEST) made up two positions to finish 7th while Greg Steer worked his way from 22nd spot to finish a good 12th. 

In race 2 it was again Aaron Steer and Mark Laucke that claimed a one/two result for WEST, this time the first Radical home being that of Glyn Edis in third. Graeme Cook (WEST) claimed 5th, with Greg Steer (WEST) 15th, and Ulrich Sherry (WEST) finishing in 26th. The Trophy Race over 8 laps again saw Aaron Steer and Mark Laucke dominate for yet another one/two finish and it looked like it may have been a total WEST podium before Richard Fricker (Radical) got the better of Graeme Cook (WEST) in an ‘interesting’ yellow flag incident. Greg Steer (WEST) took 15th spot.

"It was a great weekend. We also got the Supersports lap record in race 2 at 1:09.2060, pole and three wins. You can’t do better than that for WEST", an elated Aaron Steer said after the meeting. ‘I know the Radicals and the other manufacturers will be trying to beat us at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide next year and I can’t wait". For further information about West Race Cars Australia email Greg Steer (greg.steer@westracecars.com.au).

Elkart Lake, WI (Aug. 28, 2009) – “Frustration” was probably the best way to describe Vassian’s attempt at the 2009 SCCA National Runoffs event this year, with Kletjian doing very well, locking in a 4th place result on a grid of 18.

Garrett Kletjian brought his WX10 to the Runoffs this year after purchasing the car just 5 months ago and having never been in a sports racer! It has been an amazing feat for him to acclimate to the sportsracer class so quickly and also attempt the Runoffs so soon! He had only been in the car 5 previous times - once for a test drive before purchasing and 4 times to complete his 4 required races for competing at the Runoffs! Kletjian faired extremely well in his 4 National qualifying races leading up the Runoffs, winning 2 of the events outright. During Runoffs week, Garrett had his own set of challenges with setup, but overall handled the car and the intimidating Road America track extremely well.

Vassian had issues from the beginning. Bringing a brand new WX10 to the event, he decided to spend the week before the Runoffs testing the car and sorting out any setup issues. The way it turned out however, was that the car ran absolutely perfectly from the very first lap, and being the lightest WX10 ever built, felt amazing! So much credit goes to Jake Randels and Dan Jang for building this car perfect from the outset. Unfortunately, Vassian damaged the car on the 5th lap of testing, and it took the rest of the week to get the parts up to Road America and installed. Again - an absolutely amazing job done, this time by Jake Randels and Kevin Takalo - the two engineers supporting West’s efforts at the Runoffs for getting the car back together in time for qualifying.

The car was put back together just in time for qualifying week.  Unfortunately, rain came down hard for qualify 1 and an unexpected water line break occurred for qualify 2, so no opportunity to show off the car’s potential in the first outings.  All that remained was qualify 3 and the race - and Vassian had not run more than a handful of laps with the car the entire two weeks.  Yet for qualify 3 a respectable time of 2:08 was had (in traffic).

Everything was pointing to an awesome race showdown on Sunday. However, Sunday had rain threatening to start at about the same time as the start of the race. Small drops were falling with 5 minutes before start, and everyone on the track was tense, not knowing what to do for tires and setup. For the most part everyone started on slicks. With Vassian in 6th starting position and Kletjian in 7th, the West cars had some work to do to get up front. The rain barely held off at the time of the start, yet within 2 laps Vassian had 2nd place outright with Kletjian right behind. Then the rain started falling and cars started sliding. The first place car lost control and backed into a wall hard, causing a double yellow flag caution right as Vassian was passing the pit entrance. With little time to decide - Vassian gambled that the rain would continue and pulled in for a rain tire change.  Kletjian stayed out.  Unfortunately changing to rains was the wrong call as once back on track, the rain stopped completely and the track dried. It did not take long to see the effects of rain tires on a dry track (not good), and Vassian pulled in with a race cut short. Ironically, just after the race ended, the rain started falling steadily.

As mentioned above, Garrett Kletjian ran an awesome race and finished 4th overall. Our hats are off to all the competitors in the DSR class who are obviously great drivers and ran an exceptional race in adverse conditions!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lindsay Fox lfox@checkeredflagdesign.com

BRASELTON, Ga. September 14 – The International Motorsports Association (IMSA), Elan Motorsports Technologies (EMT) and West Race Cars (West) have officially agreed to a three-year partnership in the IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire series, with West continuing as the exclusive manufacturer for the Lites Two (L2) class through 2012.

IMSA and West have reached an agreement to extend West’s participation in the IMSA Lites series, putting special emphasis on the growth and expansion of the L2 class. The West WR1000 has been the exclusive car in the L2 class since 2006, with the new WX10 being introduced for the 2010 season.

“We are very happy to continue and expand our relationship with West Race Cars” said Scot Elkins, IMSA Vice President of Operations. “Moving forward, this relationship between West, IMSA and EMT will be much stronger and should lead to increased car count and a more competitive L2 class for 2010 and beyond.”

Eric Vassian, owner of West Race Cars, agreed. “What makes this exciting is not only the agreement to move forward with IMSA and EMT, but additionally all of the forthcoming announcements that will be made public in the upcoming weeks regarding IMSA Lites for next season. I think that IMSA is really stepping up its level of support for IMSA Lites.”

The IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire series was developed to give drivers, engineers and crews the experience needed to expand their careers and one day compete in the American Le Mans series - the premier prototype and GT endurance racing series in North America. Global race car constructors Elan Motorsports Technologies and West Race Cars offer state of the art racecars to drivers from around the world. Drivers in the IMSA Lites series have the opportunity to compete at historic racing venues such as Sebring International Raceway, Road America and Road Atlanta.

The IMSA Lites series features multi-class racing and presents a unique dimension of competition as drivers must be aware of classes with distinctly different speeds. This makes the IMSA Lites series the perfect training ground for drivers dreaming of one day competing in the American Le Mans Series. For more information regarding the IMSA Lites series, please contact the Series Manager, Mike Simons at 706-658-2121 or msimons@imsaracing.net.

ATLANTA, GA (Sept 5, 2009) West is putting the finishing touches on two new cars being constructed and delivered to customers within the next few weeks. Craig Bradley from Indiana and Lee Alexander from Nevada will both have their cars by end of the month.

Craig has a long history of club racing, having run SRF, S2 and most recently a Diasio. Looking for a new challenge, Craig started researching sportsracers, and flew out to one of the IMSA Lites events this year where the WX10 was being run (by Garrett Kletjian - then a new owner of his own WX10). After studying the performance of the car beforehand, and then seeing the WX10 run in person, Craig’s mind was made up! His first official race is currently scheduled at VIR in October.

Lee Alexander has been running a Radical SR3 at the Spring Mountain track in Nevada for several years now. Similar to Craig, Lee was looking for a new challenge and also important to him was the fact that his new car would be able to run in the IMSA Lites series as well as being highly competitive in SCCA club racing, giving him multiple venues to run his car. Lee has pre-purchased the West factory Runoffs car that will be running next week at Road America.

Inquiries and interest has been very strong for West’s new sportsracer, which has been extremely positive considering the tough year most manufacturers have with the economy. The 2010 season is not far away so so if you’re thinking about a new car for next year, now is the time to give us a call!

[Sept 15th, Blakeslee, PA] Garrett Kletjian won back to back SCCA Nationals at Pocono this weeeknd in his new WX10. It was a great event for the new sportsracer driver and the new West race car.   Not only were the wins great, but very important as well, since Garrett needed to complete both races to be able to attend the SCCA National Runoffs.  Congratulations Garrett!

[July 6th, Australia] West Race Cars Australia with young driver Aaron Steer has dominated Round 4 of the NSW Racing and Sports Car Championship on its first ever visit to the Eastern Creek circuit. Steer, driving his Oasis Systems sponsored WEST WR1000, had the perfect weekend taking pole position in qualifying and then taking a trio of victories in the three races.

‘It was a great result. We hadn’t seen the circuit before and given that it’s the ‘home track’ for the Radical cars and they had eight vehicles entered it was nice to show everyone just how fast the 1 liter West is compared to the 1500cc and 1300cc Radicals’, Steer said after his dominating weekend.

In qualifying Steer took pole with a time of 1:31.1973, some 1.36 seconds faster than the second fastest machine, the Radical of Glyn Edis, followed by another Radical driven by Richard Fricker. Race 1 saw Steer in the Oasis Systems WEST a staggering five car lengths ahead of the field by turn 2 on the first lap and from that point on he simply managed the seven lap race to win by a comfortable 13 second margin from the Radical horde of Richard Fricker, Glyn Edis, Peter Opie, Geoff Brunsdon, and Edward Singleton. In race 2 Steer in his dominating WEST was four seconds ahead at the end of the first lap and after three fast circulations of the Eastern Creek complex settled down for the rest of the race to take an easy victory 14.5 seconds ahead of the Radicals of Richard Fricker and Geoff Brunsdon. And Aaron Steer made the weekend a WEST dominated affair with his victory in race 3 finishing a mammoth 18 seconds ahead (the distance of the main straight) of the Radical of Richard Fricker!

[June 7th, Millville, NJ] Garrett Kletjian today took second place with his new West WX10 in his first ever National SCCA DSR event and amazingly in his first weekend ever in a sportsracer!  Even more impressively, his fast lap was only 1.5 seconds off the track record!  Kletjian, who is an experienced road racer of Porsche cars as well as a driver in the Trans Am series, had never run a full downforce sportsracer before.  Obviously he has acclimated to it very well!

Garrett's next race will be the New Jersey Motorsports IMSA Lites event and from there he plans to campaign the car in SCCA Nationals as well as IMSA Lites.

[May 31st, Sydney, Australia] Young gun Aaron Steer has placed himself on the ‘drivers to watch’ list following two sensational victories in the NSW Racing & Sports Car Championship at Sydney’s Oran Park Grand Prix circuit last weekend. The 21 year old rookie driver, aboard the Oasis Systems sponsored WEST WR1000 sportscar, had a challenging qualifying session with a number of incidents that did not allow him many laps of the Oran Park circuit that was totally new to the South Australian competitor. Never the less he was rewarded with the second fastest time (1:16.00) of the 26 car strong grid - only behind the Radical SR3 of Geoff Brunsdon and ahead of the Laucke Flour Mills WEST of Mark Laucke, Peter Opie’s 1500cc Radical SR3, the 1600c.c. Mallock of Alexander Kenny, and the 1300cc Radicals of Bryron Smith, Glyn Edis, Richard Fricker, Chris Medland, and Phil Anseline filling grid spots six to ten.

Race 1 saw Steer jump into the lead on slicks with half the field choosing wets, as light rain had fallen before the start. Steer was ahead of Laucke when the safety car was required for two laps, but again the young South Australian got the jump and led for the remainder of the six lap journey to take the chequered flag, with Fricker’s Radical second followed by the WEST of Mark Laucke in third. Graeme Cook and Greg Keene in their WESTS made up plenty of ground to claim 7th and 8th at the flag respectively, while Sherry’s WEST moved up two spots to finish in 13th.

The Trophy event of the weekend was a frantic affair with five WESTs, three Radicals, a Minetti and a Dallara in the top ten grid positions. Glyn Edis (Radical) got a poor start allowing Fricker (Radical) and Laucke (WEST) to battle for first position, while Steer (WEST) had a storming start moving from 9th to 5th by turn 2 behind Graeme Cook (WEST) after Edis (Radical) and Bingham (Minetti) came together. Steer passed Cook and Sam Power’s Dallara Formula 3 car and began the hard chase after the leaders. After a safety car period that closed up the field it was a battle to the end. Laucke (WEST) was challenging Fricker (Radical) for the lead and Steer (WEST) was harassing Laucke until lap 5 when the Laucke Flour Mills sponsored WEST grazed the wall coming onto the main straight. Fricker (Radical) held the lead until lap 7 who was busy with Bingham (Minetti) and at the same time was passing Mooney (Acrobat). It was at this moment that Steer (Oasis Systems WEST) took a brave decision to pounce and threaded his #53 machine between Fricker, Mooney, and Bingham to take the lead. Steer (WEST) maintained his number 1 position to the flag with the pressure easing as Fricker (Radical) ran out of fuel on the last lap and limped to the line in second place. Graeme Cook (Racemoves WEST) finished in 7th just in front of the Laucke Flour Mills WEST of Mark Laucke in 8th with Greg Keene (Sportsmed SA WEST) 12th and Ulrich Sherry in the Navybox School of Motorsport WEST in 15th.

An elated Steer praised his WEST team and the Navybox School of Motorsport for their efforts for the weekend with the #53 WEST chassis that had previously been used by Tom Drewer in Australia before he went to the USA last year to win the 2008 IMSA Lites 2 Championship in another WEST.

[May 31st, Atlanta, GA] What a great race for West Race Cars and the WX10 this weekend at Road Atlanta! (see photos).  The WX10 has proven itself over the past two SCCA events to be as fast as anything in the DSR class - or any other class for that matter, beating most all cars on the time sheet and finally getting the DSR National win this weekend.  The amount of testing over the past 6 months has been significant and the amount of time spent on the bodywork design, under-aero design, shaker rig testing, and hours of tuning on track have paid off. With over a full year of development and construction, the WX10 is ready to race and win!

The weekend went like clockwork from beginning to end. We started out on the Friday test day just getting the car warmed up, checked out and sorted.  Some adjustments were made to the car with the new Avon tires supplied by Bob Schaefer and Frisby Tire.  But everything checked out great and we only ran two of the sessions.  Saturday morning we qualified and the West WX10 dominated the DSR class and just about everything else in the field by taking 2nd overall and 1st in DSR, with a 1:20.5.  That was almost 2 seconds faster than P2.  Additionally, the overall pole was missed by only a half second, being claimed by a Swift Atlantic.  Although there was probably another second on the table (I know all racers say that), we came in early and skipped the afternoon session.

STARTING LINEUP WITH QUALIFYING TIMES
1     Keith Grant               FA      Swift .014a      1:20.137
2     Eric Vassian              DSR   West WX10     1:20.583
3     Jim Downing             CSR    Peach DAY     1:20.717
4     Gary Gibson              CSR    Elan DP02     1:21.482
5     Garry Crook              DSR   Stohr WF1       1;22.30
6     Tommy Thompson     CSR   Elan DP02       1:22.60
7     Charles Dempsey      DSR   Stohr WF1       1:22.68
8     Glenn Cooper            FB      VD F1000        1:22.78
9     Paul Schneider          FE      SCCA Car        1:26.00
10   Jonathan Bennett      FE     SCCA Car        1:26.125

Sunday morning the race got off to a clean start and Vassian was able to literally pull away from the field, including Keith Grant's Swift Atlantic by a full car length at the end of the front straight.  He stayed out front easily for the first 6 laps with only Keith behind him, then unexpectedly started feeling really dizzy. The Atlantic got around Vassian for one lap but the WX10 was able to easily overtake the Swift again on the back straight, and led overall for 4 more laps.  The checkered flag came a few laps later, without contention from any other car, including Elan DP02s, Stohr WF1s, and other powerful CSR cars.

The weekend went without a hitch, yet none of it could have been accomplished without Jake Randels and Dan Jang - West's two primary engineers. The guys are top-notch, meticulous, and just know everything about our cars!  Secondly, George Dean Racing Engines did a fantastic job with the Suzuki GSXR powerplant, it ran perfect all weekend.  And a huge thank you goes out to Bob Schaefer and Frisby Tire, who worked with West to get special sets of tires in for this event.

Click the link to view the Race "lap" report or Race "times" report

[Apr 20th, Danville, VA] It was an incredible weekend for West Race Cars and the WX10 at the VIR SCCA Double National! The car performed amazingly well and was 100 percent reliable throughout the event, although some poorly made decisions by the race stewards and a blunder by the West driver kept things less than perfect.  But let’s start from the beginning.

West came to the game with its most “DSR” like car to date.  Although the current factory WX10 was built as an IMSA spec car (1100 pound minimum) our engineers (Jake Randels and Dan Jang) spent a lot of time reducing the weight of the vehicle and were able to eliminate 48 pounds. The car also had a Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine, prepared by George Dean Racing Engines, special Avon tires sponsored by Frisby Tire and an updated suspension setup with the help from Ohlins USA. Not as light as the other competitors (over 100 pounds heavier than some), but on par in most other aspects. Eric Vassian was driving the WX10 for the weekend.

On Thursday's test sessions, Vassian spent most of the time re-learning the track, as it had been over 3 years since the last visit. Hankook tires were used, as only one set of the new Avons were available for the weekend and were needed for qualifying/racing. The WX10 ran flawlessly all day, but with 53 cars on the field and over 30 seconds between slowest and fastest, it was almost impossible to get a clean lap!

Friday's agenda was a practice session and then race 1 qualify.  Because of all the cars in the group, SCCA decided to split the qualify session into split-starts of 12 each with 15 seconds between groups. The result was evenly positioned cars all over the track with no open space so once again it was near impossible to get a full clean lap in.  But one thing for certain, the new Avons were unbelievable, helping to take almost 3 seconds off the morning practice session to get down to a 1:50 flat, yet that was only good for P3 on the DSR grid.

On Saturday, just before the race start the officials decided to once again split-start the event - this time into open-wheel / closed wheel, and they put the closed wheels cars in the back. The problem was there were about 35 to 40 open wheel cars up front wit