JDC Looks To Build Gap On Field At NOLA

Subtitle:Powerful Team Wants To Continue Winning Ways At New Event

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 6, 2015) – JDC Motorsports won the Lites 1 Team Championship in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda series in 2014 with 10 victories in 14 races.

It was a dominant performance, led by Lites 1 Drivers Champion Mikhail Goikhberg, who earned nine of those victories. Goikhberg has graduated to the Prototype Challenge class of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, but Minnesota-based JDC could be even stronger in 2015.

JDC opened the 2015 season by sweeping Rounds 1 and 2 on March 19-20 at Sebring International Raceway with two series rookies and team newcomers.

The rest of the field has been warned. Again.

Rounds 3 and 4 will take place during the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana on April 9-12 at NOLA Motorsports Park, located just 15 minutes from the historic French Quarter in New Orleans. Round 3, a 30-minute race, will start at 1:35 p.m. (CT) Saturday, April 11 on the 2.74-mile circuit. The 45-minute Round 4 will start at 9:15 a.m. Sunday, April 12.

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda is an official IMSA Development Series, providing thrilling action and cultivating future drivers for prototype racing in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Two classes of competition take drivers and teams down unique, exciting roads of prototype sports car racing, 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.

JDC dominated the season-opening event at Sebring.

Kenton Koch, 20, from Glendora, California, led Round 1 from start to finish in his No. 60 JDC entry. Teammate Clark Toppe, 17, from The Woodlands, Texas, finished second in the No. 10 JDC Motorsports car.

The order was reversed in Round 2, as Toppe held off a charging Koch for victory. Koch nearly completed a climb from the 10th starting spot but fell just .614 of a second short. Toppe and Koch are tied atop the standings with 38 points each.

If that duo didn’t cause enough headaches for rival teams, JDC also boasts returning driver Matt McMurry, 17. He earned his first series victory in the 2014 season finale last October at Road Atlanta for JDC and opened this season by finishing fourth in Round 2 at Sebring in the No. 20 JDC entry.

McMurry, from Phoenix, made history last year by becoming the youngest driver ever, at age 16, to compete in the world’s most prestigious sports car race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Series veteran Robert Alon enters NOLA Motorsports Park this week as the leading contender to break up the JDC monopoly on the top two steps of the podium.

Alon, from Encino, California, finished fourth and third, respectively, in the two races at Sebring and is third in the championship in the No. 00 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

Other young contenders include Alon’s Performance Tech Motorsports teammate, series rookie Austin Versteeg, and fellow rookies Skylar Robinson and McKay Snow, teammates with Extreme Speed Motorsports. Robinson, 18, is the son of 1987 IMSA Camel GTP series champion Chip Robinson, who competed in the IMSA Grand Prix du Mardi Gras on the streets of New Orleans in the early 1990s.

Reigning Lites 1 Masters Driver Champion John Falb, from Las Vegas, produced a perfect opening to his title defense at Sebring by winning both rounds in the No. 77 ONE Motorsports entry. Falb also is a contender for an overall podium finish, as he placed sixth and fifth in the two opening rounds, respectively.

Joel Janco, from Key Largo, Florida, started with pace and power in Lites 1 Masters at Sebring, finishing second in the class in both races at Sebring in the No. 25 Performance Tech Motorsports car. Janco is second in Lites 1 Masters points with 36.

Don Yount, from Dallas, is third in Lites 1 Masters points with 30 after finishing fourth and third at Sebring with his small, hard-working Yount Motorsports team.

Lites 1 Masters also will feature local flavor, as New Orleans resident Keith Dusko will drive the No. 11 Eurosport entry.

Todd Slusher and Brian Alder each won one race at Sebring in Lites 2, continuing the battle they waged during the second half of last season. Slusher leads the standings with 38 points, and Alder is second with 34.

Alder, from Dublin, Ohio, rolled to his second consecutive Lites 2 championship last year in the No. 22 BAR1 Motorsports entry. But he built a huge lead before Las Vegas housing developer Slusher switched to the Lites 2 class with ONE Motorsports.

Once Slusher joined Lites 2, he and Alder battled to a near-draw. Alder scored 148 points and Slusher 146 in the eight rounds they raced against each other in the same class.

John Salmon, from Lynchburg, Virginia, is third in Lites 2 with 32 points in the No. 46 ODU Engineering Race Team entry.

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 will run 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. Live timing for every race is available at IMSA.com.

Schedule

Practice: 4-4:40 p.m. (CT), Thursday, April 9; 9:40-10:10 a.m., Friday, April 10

Qualifying: 8:30-8:50 a.m. Saturday, April 11

Round 1 (30 minutes): 1:35-2:05 p.m. Saturday, April 11

Round 2 (45 minutes): 9:15-10 a.m. Sunday, April 12

Race Coverage

Live timing: All on-track sessions at scoring.imsa.com

Twitter: Live text commentary from all sessions at @IMSALive