West Vancouver PR

(submitted to Atlantic communications for further distribution by World Speed Motorsports)

Contact: Pamela Morey Tel/Fax: 408-335-1105

WEST WILL SIT OUT VANCOUVER

(for immediate release -- August 21,1997) -- Chuck West (Sonoma, Calif.) will be forced to miss the eleventh round of the KOOL Toyota Atlantic championship at Vancouver, British Columbia due to budget constraints. He will be present as a team owner, overseeing the World Speed Motorsports entries of rookies Mark Tague and Bill Tichenor. "The money situation was tight at Road America," West said. "With the accident during the rain race, Vancouver is completely out of the question. It's getting tough to find the positive aspects of the season, but at least we know we had a great car at Elkhart Lake. That car was given to me by a great crew that has endured a lot of long hours and hardships this season -- I can't say enough about their performance. The pole and new track record breathed some life into the team, but that was all washed away on Sunday. Missing this race will give my guys some well deserved rest and we can come back to Laguna with a refreshed outlook. We had a good weekend there last year when we qualified third and finished sixth with a car that developed a horsepower problem." West set a new track record in qualifying at Road America, with a lap of 2:03:611. The time was better than half a second quicker than the mark set by Joao Barbosa on Friday. West got too much wheel spin in the wet race start and never came to grips with the handling of the car. He slid off course on the eighth lap of the caution marred event. "I guess my season has been a bit like Dario Franchitti's PPG-CART season," West said. "He got a chance to run and then has been plagued by misfortune. Our season has been similar - we got the chance to run the full season and have had flashes of brilliance, but absolutely no good luck to go with it."

###