DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 24, 2015) – Prepare for a coronation.
Kenton Koch could clinch the Lites 1 Drivers Championship in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda during Rounds 11 and 12 on Aug. 28-29 at VIRginia International Raceway.
Koch, from Glendora, California, leads the standings by 54 points over JDC Motorsports teammate Clark Toppe with four rounds remaining in the season. Koch will be the new king of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Official Development Series if he leaves VIR with a lead of 40 points or more.
Series rookie Koch, 21, also could earn the IMSA Scholarship awarded to the Lites 1 series champion to advance to the Prototype Challenge (PC) class of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in the next season. The scholarship provides a clear, defined path to a professional career as a prototype driver in the premier sports car championship in North America.
The chances are strong for Koch. He has won eight of the 10 rounds this season in the No. 60 JDC Motorsports entry, finishing second in the other two races. He has scored the most points of any driver at four of the five event weekends this season, tying teammate Toppe with 38 points after the season-opening first two rounds in March at Sebring International Raceway.
Two classes of competition take drivers and teams down unique, exciting roads of prototype sports car racing in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, with all competitors racing in Élan DP02 chassis powered by Mazda engines and riding on Cooper Tires.
Nimble, high-tech, purpose-built Lites 1 machines pack in the power with a 230-horsepower, 2-liter Mazda engine designed to prepare aspiring professionals for prototype competition in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and offer a challenging environment for mature semi-professional drivers, including competition in a Masters Championship. Equally capable and cost-effective Lites 2 machines offer new competitors a perfect introduction to the world-class competition offered by IMSA.
This will be a unique event for series drivers and teams, for three reasons.
One, both races will take place on the same day, Saturday, Aug. 29. Round 11, a 30-minute race, will start at 9:20 a.m. (ET). Round 12, a 45-minute race, will start at 3 p.m. Practice and qualifying are scheduled for Friday, Aug. 28.
Two, all action will take place on the 14-turn, 2.25-mile North Course at VIR since Prototype Lites is racing at VIR on the same weekend as the Biscuitville 125 for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and IMSA Single-Make Series use the 17-turn, 3.27-mile full circuit during the annual Oak Tree Grand Prix at VIR.
Three, series sponsor Cooper Tires will host a number of fan-friendly events during this event, including a driver autograph session, public drivers’ meeting, a driver Q&A session and social media contests to award fans positions as event grand marshal, honorary starter and trophy presenter.
“This will be a special event for the drivers, teams and fans of Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda,” said Chris Pantani, director of motorsports at Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. “There will be plenty of incredible action among some of the brightest young talents and skilled veteran drivers in IMSA sports car racing, and fans will enjoy all of the opportunities to meet the competitors at such a great facility like VIR.”
Seventeen-year-olds Toppe and Matt McMurry are among the largest threats to teammate Koch in both races. But the JDC Motorsports trio also must keep an eye on Performance Tech Motorsports teammates Robert Alon and Austin Versteeg.
Alon and Versteeg have scored 96 and 93 points, respectively, in the last seven rounds. Only Koch has scored more. Alon, 25, from Encino, California, has produced two second-place finishes during that span in the No. 00 Performance Tech Motorsports entry and is third in points. Versteeg, 16, from Sandy, Utah, has finished third three times during that stretch in the team’s No. 16 entry to climb to fourth in points.
John Falb, from Las Vegas, could clinch his second consecutive Lites 1 Masters championship in the No. 77 ONE Motorsports entry at VIR.
Falb leads second place Joel Janco by 28 points and will need to expand that gap to 40 by the end of this event to lock down the crown. Falb has eight class wins in 10 starts this season, but Janco has been a model of consistency, too, in the No. 25 Performance Tech Motorsports entry. Janco, from Key Largo, Florida, has produced seven runner-up finishes this season in the class.
Don Yount, from Dallas, is third in the Lites 1 Masters class with 137 points in the No. 28 Yount Motorsports car. He is facing increasing pressure from fourth place Gerhard Watzinger, who is fourth with 130 points in the No. 32 ONE Motorsports entry.
While Koch is an odds-on favorite to clinch the Lites 1 championship, the race for the Lites 2 title is tight and almost certainly will continue to the season finale Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Road Atlanta.
Brian Alder took a four-point lead over Todd Slusher, 182-178, after sweeping Rounds 9 and 10 earlier this month at Road America in the No. 22 BAR1 Motorsports entry. Alder has won four of the last five rounds.
Those wins could be pivotal at the end of the season. The first tiebreaker in any deadlock is the number of victories. Alder has five; Slusher, from Las Vegas, has four in the No. 62 ONE Motorsports car.
There will be two Virginia ties to this event.
Lites 2 competitor John Salmon, from nearby Lynchburg, Virginia, drives the No. 46 ODU Engineering Race Team car in Lites 2. Three crew members on the team are graduates of the motorsports engineering program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where team principal Victor Seaber also teaches upper-level motorsports engineering classes.
Lites 1 rookie Naj Husain, from Great Falls, Virginia, drives the No. 3 Extreme Speed Motorsports car.
This is the 10th season of Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda competition. IMSA sanctions a seven-venue, 14-round schedule for the 2015 season. The series runs 10 of its 14 rounds during TUDOR Championship events, providing plenty of high-profile visibility for teams and drivers at the largest sports car racing events in North America.
All events consist of 30-minute and 45-minute sprint races.
Follow IMSA on Facebook and @IMSA on Twitter with the hashtag #CTPL for updates on the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda. The hashtag for this special weekend at VIR is #AccessVIR.
Live timing for every race is available at IMSA.com and on the new official IMSA mobile app available for iOS, Android and Windows.
Schedule
Practice: 10:05-10:45 a.m. and 1:15-1:45 p.m. (ET) Friday, Aug. 28
Qualifying: 3:10-3:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28
Round 11 (30 minutes): 9:20-9:50 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 29
Round 12 (45 minutes): 3-3:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29
Driver autograph session: 11:30 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Aug. 29
Race Coverage
Live timing: All on-track sessions at scoring.imsa.com
Twitter: Live text commentary from all sessions at @IMSALive
For more information about Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, visit www.imsa.com, follow hashtag #CTPL @IMSA on Twitter or IMSA on Facebook.
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