BRASELTON, GA  (September 25, 2011) - The two classes of the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship, the penultimate rung on the American Le Mans Series prototype development ladder, have experienced polar opposite championship stories in 2011; while the Lites 2 class has seen one driver reset the series record books on his way to the title, the Lites 1 chase comes down to the last two races at Road Atlanta.

Lites 1

Three drivers have taken turns atop the Lites 1 point standings this season - veterans Lucas and Antonio Downs and rookie Ricardo Vera have each sat in the top spot.  Going into the last two events of the season, only 24 points separate the top four Lites 1 drivers: Vera, Antonio Downs, Jonathan Gore and Gerry Kraut.

The 18-year-old Vera, from Ponce, Puerto Rico, took his #37 Intersport Racing Élan DP02 into the championship lead at Lime Rock in July, with a third and a fifth-place finish in the two races. Last weekend’s victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, with second place Antonio Downs finishing third, may have sealed the title - and with the added bonus of an off-season test in the Dyson Mazda-Lola LMP car as a prize to the champion, there’s just that much more incentive.

Vera is something of a prodigy, having stepped into a go kart at age 12. In his second year, he won the Puerto Rican karting championship and moved on to Formula cars in Europe. To be in the thick of a championship in only his fourth year of sports car racing is amazing - to everyone but Vera, who planned to be in this position when the season started.

“From the beginning, my goal was to be in the championship,” said Vera. “The team works really hard and we’ll keep going hard to be first when the season is over! But this will be my first time running Road Atlanta – I’m seeing most of these tracks for the first time, so I’m trying to get used to them.”

The “Downs boys” – Matt, Antonio and Lucas, all driving for Eurosport Racing – have raced in the series since 2007, so naturally the championship was in the plans for 2011. Work concerns held off Matt’s season debut until Mid-Ohio, while a concussion suffered in a qualifying crash at Lime Rock and a rollover at Road America meant Lucas sat out three races. That left Antonio, in the #4 Lamex Foods entry, to uphold the family honor, as he took both victories in an emotional Lime Rock weekend following his brother’s accident.

“It is my goal and will always be my goal, to win the championship,” said Downs, who lives in Minneapolis. “We’ve come close; Matt had the lead for a good portion of 2009. So we’d love to have that in the family – and we’d love to get a Downs podium sweep before we’re done!” 

Jonathan Gore, from Franklin, Tennessee, considers Road Atlanta his home track, having raced his Élan DP02 here in numerous test days and races. In his first full season in the series, the driver of the #14 Comprent Motorsports entry hopes familiarity breeds success.

“I do most of my testing at Road Atlanta, so I consider that my home track,” said Gore. “I hope that helps!  I have to finish ahead of Ricardo and Antonio– of course, it’s not as simple as that, but as long as I don’t fall off the track and nothing breaks on the car, I’ll be all right.”

Gerry Kraut and his JDC Motorsports team moved into the series this season following a successful run in Star Mazda. Kraut, a Minnesota native, has adapted pretty quickly to the sports car racing scene.

“I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this season,” said Kraut, driving the #55 Doughtery & Co entry. “I came in with no preconceived ideas of what the car would be like - and it’s exceeded my expectations in terms of fun and ease of driveability. It’s much easier to drive than a Star Mazda, with a much wider set up window, so I really enjoy it. And it’s great being in the championship mix!”

Lites 2

Toronto native Robert Sabato has rewritten the Lites 2 record books, clinching the Lites 2 championship with an astonishing season, winning nine out of 12 races – nine consecutive race wins sandwiched by a fifth place finish at Sebring and two second place finishes last week in Monterey. Naturally, Sabato, driving the #22 6th Gear Racing West WR1000, considers Mosport his home track, but finds more than a few parallels between the Toronto-area road course and Road Atlanta.

“I really think it’s a better Mosport,” said Sabato. “Road Atlanta has a lot of sweeping turns, a few blind corners, high speed - everything about it really seems like a better Mosport to me, so I’m comfortable here. You just have to take a deep breath and be smooth. “Before this year, I’d only done Road Atlanta twice and Mosport once. At the end of last year, (former L2 champion) John Weisberg suggested we concentrate on making the cars reliable, rather than just focusing on making them fast. So during the off season, the guys rebuilt the cars from the bottom up and made them incredibly reliable – which won me the championship!”

With first place out of reach, second place in Lites 2 came down to rookie Alan Wilzig and second year driver Jim Garrett. Garrett took a hard hit in practice at Road America which damaged his car and ended his season. Garrett and Wilzig have developed a mentoring relationship on the track, with Garrett helping Wilzig learn a season’s-worth of new racetracks, so Garrett’s crash (pardon the pun) hit Wilzig hard.

“It’s hard to watch someone like Jim Garrett, my closest friend in the series and a bit of a mentor, have a brutal crash into Jersey-barrier concrete - in the same exact car that I race,” said Wilzig. “The key for me this year has been committing myself to the season and never missing an event and having a crew that produces a smooth running machine week after week. And of course, not crashing!”

Garrett’s assistance to Wilzig doesn’t stop with on-track guidance: in a gesture typical of the camaraderie that exists in the Lites ranks, Garrett has donated his racing engine for use in Wilzig’s car at Road Atlanta, to help combat the enduring mechanical gremlins Wilzig has suffered in the latter part of the season.

“Jim has really encouraged and fostered my involvement in the series - only through his graciousness as a sportsman and generosity as a friend will I be able to complete a perfect attendance record of 14 races!”

The Prototype Lites mission is two-fold: present an opportunity for semi-professional race car drivers to compete in a world-class environment while also providing an avenue for drivers to move up the ladder into the LMPC or LMP classes in the American Le Mans Series Presented by Tequila Patrón. The series is divided into two classes: Lites 1, featuring the Élan DP02 chassis, powered by a 2.3-liter, four-cylinder Mazda MP2 engine; and Lites 2, utilizing the West WX10 and WR1000 chassis, with either a Kawasaki ZX10R or a Suzuki GSXR motor.

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship will have two 30-minute races during the Petit Le Mans weekend at Road Atlanta – Thursday at 12:50pm and Friday at 9:15am. Visit www.prototypelites.com for live timing and scoring and updates throughout the race weekend.

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