Lites: Series Mosport enduro pre-event notes

SECOND COOPER TIRES PROTOTYPE LITES CHAMPIONSHIP ENDURANCE RACE AT MOSPORT

BRASELTON, Ga. -- The second endurance race of the season has been added to the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship calendar as part of the Mobil 1 Presents the Grand Prix of Mosport August 27-29.

Two races are scheduled for Mosport; Saturday's race will be a 45-minute event, standard for the series. But the second race of the weekend on Sunday, just before the ALMS race, will be a 75 minute endurance event, requiring the drivers to come into the pit lane, refuel and take on new tires.

The first endurance race of the season was held at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California in May. The longer event produced one of the most exciting events of the season, as teams jockeyed for position on the racetrack and in the pit lane. With a strict set of guidelines as to when and how the cars could pit for fuel and tires, drivers and teams pitted their strategies against each other to gain position.

In the end, it was Johnny Meriggi, starting his #11 Performance Tech Élan DP02 in 7th position in Lites 1, who timed his pit stop perfectly to make his way through the field to take the victory. The stops were the great equalizer, as John Weisberg took his #75 BERG Racing/REDCOM West WR1000 in Lites 2 from 18th on the overall starting grid to 3rd place - the highest finish for a Lites 2 car since Tom Drewer finished second at the Utah event in 2008 and only the second time a Lites 2 car has been on the overall series podium.

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship features racing between two sports racer prototype classes, Lites 1 and Lites 2, presenting a dimension of competition as drivers must be aware of classes with distinctly different speeds as they navigate the race track. This is the same challenge faced by the drivers of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.

Mosport International Raceway is Canada's largest motorsports complex - the 750 acre, multi-track facility is located in Bowmanville, Ontario, within the greater Toronto area.

The Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport weekend will host rounds 12 and 13 of the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship series. For more information and live timing throughout the weekend, please visit www.prototypelites.com.

-source: imsa