Rookie Versteeg Makes Successful Jump To Cars

Subtitle:Performance Tech, Advice From Fellow Racing Family Help Transition

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 7, 2015) – Austin Versteeg is not just a rookie in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda series. He’s in his first year of racing cars.

Versteeg, 15, from Sandy, Utah, spent the past seven years in karting before jumping behind the wheel of a Prototype Lites car this year with Performance Tech Motorsports.

“From an outside perspective, it looks like quite a bit of a jump,” Versteeg said. “The theory that you have to go faster to get more grip was a bit of a struggle for me at the beginning, but it honestly didn’t take me as long as I thought it would to get used to the car.

“The good thing about karting is that your reaction times are so fast, and everything happens so fast, so when I hopped into the Lites car, it was almost like everything slowed down a little bit. I felt comfortable jumping into the car.”

Versteeg is driving for Performance Tech Motorsports in the No. 16 Lites 1 entry. He finished fifth and 11th in Rounds 1 and 2 of competition, respectively, on March 19-20 at Sebring International Raceway.

“The learning curve right now is more about developing my feedback from go-karting to cars,” Versteeg said. “The biggest challenge is communicating to my team what the car is doing, using the correct terminology. That’s the biggest gap.”

Versteeg’s dream of becoming a race driver began with his karting days at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. At age 7, he started club racing alongside fellow Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda competitor and Utah resident McKay Snow.

“We live about 25 minutes apart, and our families are good friends,” Versteeg said. “At the time we were making decisions about what would be the next step for me in racing, and McKay’s brother Madison was racing in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, and he was also doing some stuff on the side with a Lites team.  They felt Prototype Lites would be a good fit for me, and helped us get started in this series.  We are very grateful to them for their guidance because they are a racing family and have been doing this for years.”

Potential exposure is another reason Versteeg was drawn to the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Development Series.

“In six out of eight weekends, we race with the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship,” Versteeg said. “If you do well, the manufacturers are there. My family, sponsors, and I felt that IMSA was the biggest bang for the buck.  It’s really an amazing car and I love driving it.”

After two of 14 rounds of competition, Versteeg is seventh in the Lites 1 Driver Championship point standings. His goal is to improve throughout the season and finish on the podium in a few races. Performance Tech Motorsports’ support has eased Versteeg’s transition.

“The family environment at Performance Tech is amazing,” Versteeg said. “Everyone on the team is like a family member. After testing with Performance Tech back in December, it was the most comfortable I’ve felt with a team, and I knew that I could learn a ton from everyone there. It’s a professional environment where they want you to push the limits, learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward.”

Rounds 3 and 4 of Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda action will take place April 9-12 during the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana, located 15 minutes from the historic French Quarter in New Orleans.

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.