Doug Smith Pursues 2005 Cooper Tires Zetec Championship

Doug Smith Pursues 2005 Cooper Tires Zetec Championship

 

 

PLANTATION, Fla., April 11, 2005 - Plantation, Florida's Doug Smith will
return to the seat of an open wheel race car this season to contest the
Formula Ford Zetec Cooper Tire Championship. Smith, who was the American
Continental Championship runner-up in 2002, will pilot the No. 35
Packers of Indian River LTD/Wirewheel Sportscars/Race-Sport.net Van
Diemen throughout the full 2005 Formula Ford Zetec Championship Series
schedule. Smith's RF05 Van Diemen will be prepared by GTP Motorsports,
of Candia, New Hampshire, and long time open wheel engineer, Glenn
Phillips. Smith and GTP will debut their 2005 Cooper Tires Championship
effort at Braselton, Georgia's Road Atlanta course with the American Le
Mans Series, (ALMS), on April 15-16th.

 

Following Atlanta, the Packers of Indian River, LTD/Wirewheel
Sportscars/Race-sport.net Van Diemen will enter the second race of the
season at the Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course on May 22nd. The third-round
will come in conjunction with Champ Car's Grand Prix of Cleveland at
Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport on June 25-26th. The first race with
the Grand American Road Racing Association, the sanctioning body for the
Cooper Tire Series, will be with the Rolex Sports Car Series at Mid-Ohio
on August 27-28th. A yet to be announced September date will make-up the
fifth round of the circuit with the sixth at Virginia International
Raceway, with the Rolex Series, on October 8-9th. The season will
conclude with the Cooper Festival on the short course at Sebring, (Fla.)
international Raceway, on October 22-23rd.

 

While pursuing other motorsports opportunities in recent years, Smith
has kept an active hand in open wheel racing as a regular in the Zetec
Series. Smith, an instructor at the Panoz Racing School and Audi Driving
Experience Schools, is looking forward to filling out his 2005 schedule
racing in the Historic SportsCar Racing series (HSR), with owner/driver
Jim Rogers and teammate Bill Adam in Rogers' mid-80's Group 44 Jaguar
GTP car and Audi R8 LMP1 car. Smith opened the HSR season driving the
Audi to victory in the Al Holbert Memorial GTP WSC Reunion at Sebring in
March.

 

GTP Motorsports, a national parts supplier for Van Diemen race cars, has
extensive experience in preparing cars for competition in the ALMS, IMSA
GTP and open wheel racing for Kenny Bernstein's CART program.  Packers
of Indian Rover, LTD. is a leading citrus grower and packing company in
Florida. Wirewheel Sportscars, ( <http://www.wirewheel.com/>
www.wirewheel.com) focuses on the sales of pre-owned British Sports cars
and other unique cars of interest.  Race-sport.net, from Boca Raton,
Fla., specializes in karting sales, service and supplies.




 

Doug Smith: 

About the season: "I am really excited about my up-coming season in the
Cooper Championship. We have put together a great group of sponsors that
have come on board to support us for the year. First, we have an awesome
schedule and I'm looking forward to driving the Indian
River/Wirewheel/Race-sport.net car at all of the tracks, especially
Atlanta, Cleveland and VIR. Secondly, with the announcement of Grand
American sanctioning the series and a potential Daytona Prototype ride
at the end of the year, I find myself with some added incentive. I've
always had a goal to do endurance racing and I can't imagine a better
way to showcase myself in front of the Rolex teams than to be running in
the Cooper Zetec Series."

 

About racing with GTP: "How can this get better? I will have the best
engineer in the paddock in Glenn Phillips. It is important for a driver
and engineer to be on the same page. Glenn and I are on the same
sentence."

 

About racing this weekend at Road Atlanta: "Winning at Sebring in the
Audi really was the best possible way to begin the year, I am rolling
into Atlanta with this momentum and still on that high."

 

 

For more on the Formula Ford Zetec Cooper Tire Championship, please
visit  <http://www.cooperseries.com/> www.cooperseries.com. 

 

 

### 

 

Digital images and bio available upon request.

Editors, please do not publish any contact information other than web
sites.  Thank you.

 

Contact: Tom Moore, Doug Smith Motorsports

615-778-1614 (office), 615-509-5000 (cell),
 tom@darkhorsecom.com