COOPER TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY (NYSE: CTB) hit the ground running as the season opener fired up this past weekend, April 6-8, on the downtown streets of Las Vegas, Nev., when the drivers went head-to-head at the Vegas Grand Prix – Round 1 of the 12-race series for the start of the 2007 Cooper Tire Champ Car Atlantic Championship season. The track was all set and ready to rock for three straight days of on-track racing, and as the final car passed the finish line, the event was an enormous success.
Starting with the 2007 race season, Cooper is the official tire and presenting sponsor of the Champ Car Atlantic Championship. This series is well known around the globe and positions Cooper squarely at the forefront of the motorsports world. Cooper is supplying all series teams with highly engineered racing slicks and rain tires designed specifically for Atlantic competition. This new strategic partnership provides an excellent platform to showcase Cooper s ultra-high performance racing products and technological capabilities to enthusiasts on every continent.
“This is Cooper s first year joining forces with the Atlantic series, ” said Cooper s Vice President of Marketing Jim Keller. “We had a very successful kickoff at the first race in Las Vegas and we are excited to play such a large role in the series and in its continued success. ”
Cooper Atlantic racing radials will play a critical role in every race of the series – a series with a stellar reputation for developing race talent. After a flurry of off-season testing activity, Atlantic drivers officially competed on Cooper racing slicks on the 2.4-mile Vegas street circuit. With the infusion of racing talent from around the world, the Atlantic series makes this field one of the most competitive in its history. This means the tire s performance needs to be no less than impressive – especially in an atmosphere of high-dose adrenaline. Cooper s technology and extensive testing produced the best possible setup for optimal performance for the series car, tire and driver, allowing for a heated competition in capturing the checkered flag.
“It was a great win for all of us at Sierra Sierra and I was very happy with the performance of the new Cooper tires, ” said Raphael Matos of Sierra Sierra Enterprises, winner of Sunday s Atlantic race. “They were really consistent in the race, even though it was such a tough race because we had so many yellow flags. When you have long yellow flags like that you never know how much grip you have, so you have to keep the tire temperature up. I was able to do that and I really had to trust the tires on all of the re-starts. In my last pass for the lead I was able to go deep in Turn 1 on the re-start and my Cooper tires helped me do that, and that s really how we won the race. ”
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