Comprent Continues To Invest

Subtitle:Longtime Team Has Supported Series, Won Titles Since 2006

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 20, 2015) – What Comprent Motor Sports CEO Kevin Kloepfer started as a hobby in 1988 has evolved 27 years later into one of the bedrock teams of the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda championship.

Kloepfer opened Comprent as a part-time business to help out a friend, a one-car operation in a one-car garage. It was only meant to be a small operation. But within a year, it had become a full-time venture for the team.

“It started as a hobby,” Kloepfer said. “I was in the service station business for over 30 years, but when this became a full-time commitment, I sold the station to focus on Comprent, and we’ve been doing it ever since.”

Today the Comprent shop is a 25,000 square-foot, multi-purpose, full-service race shop located in Athens, Georgia, and the team has a dedicated investment in Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda.

Kloepfer and Comprent not only owned the first Élan Motorsport Technologies production DP02 chassis for the series, they assembled 15 of the first 30 cars in their shop.

One of Comprent’s customers bought the first car, and the team was one of the first to join the series.

“We liked the concept of the car and the spec aspect of the car,” Kloepfer said. “And the fact that I was building the cars at the time led me to do it. It made perfect business sense on top of everything else.”

Kloepfer and preparation manager Brandon White have continued to build the Comprent Lites program as the only team to participate in every season since 2006.

“The series is competitive,” Kloepfer said. “And that’s really why we keep doing it. We like the series. We like going to the big events. We have customers that have asked us to look after him. The beauty of the series is that it’s a good stepping-stone for the young guy, but it also is a place for the other guys to go out and have fun.”

Comprent Motor Sports is a proven winner in both the amateur and professional racing ranks, having earned IMSA Prototype Lites Team and Driver Championships in 2008 and 2011 and another Driver Championship in 2013. Comprent finished second in the Driver and Team Championships last season.

The team has most often run one or two cars, never a huge operation. This season the team has three quality drivers in Tony Bullock, Darryl Shoff and Lee Alexander.

“That’s the business model that we’ve found that works for us,” Kloepfer said. “We want our young guys that we develop to move up, but we also want our weekend warriors, guys that work for a living and this is like their golf. To me it’s better quality, but that’s just us and what works for us. We haven’t had the best luck so far this year. Things just haven’t fallen into place, but we’re looking for our luck to turn around.

“You always want a championship, but you’re not always going to win a championship. There is some really great talent in the field this year. For our guys, we want them to work as a team. It’s a lot of work and a lot of hours get put into it. You want to get enjoyment and reward out of it for the hard work you put into it.”

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda field next competes in Rounds 11 and 12 on Aug. 28-29 at VIRginia International Raceway in Danville, Virginia. Fans can follow the action through live timing at scoring.imsa.com or on the official IMSA mobile app for iOS, Android or Windows, or follow live commentary on Twitter at @IMSALive.