2010 IMSA Prototype Lites season explained

The 2010 Cooper Tires Prototype Lites season was the fourth season of the series. It consisted of eight rounds which started on March 20 at Sebring International Raceway and ended on October 2 at Road Atlanta. This was one of the support series of the American Le Mans Series.

CORE Autosport's Charlie Shears was champion in the Lites 1 class, clinching the title with a round to spare.^[1] Despite winning only three races, Shears finished every race in the points and won the championship title by 45 points from his nearest rival. Brothers Antonio and Matt Downs finished in second and third places; Antonio winning races at Miller Motorsports Park and Road America, and Matt at Millville. Three-time race winner Gary Gibson and Jon Brownson, another winner at Road America completed the top five in the championship. Shears' performances helped CORE Autosport clinch the Lites 1 teams' championship, six points clear of the Downs' Eurosport Racing outfit. In Lites 2, BERG Racing's John Weisberg and Factory 48 Motorsports' Lee Alexander dominated the class, taking 13 of the 15 wins available. Weisberg's nine wins gave him the championship title by seven points on dropped scores, from four-time winner Alexander. BERG Racing also took the teams title by six points from Factory 48. Other race wins were taken by Rick Bartuska and Eric Vassian.

Schedule

All races supported the 2010 American Le Mans Series season apart from round three which was a stand-alone event. All rounds consisted of two 30 minute races.

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Location	Date
1	58th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring	Sebring International Raceway	Sebring, Florida	March 20
2	Monterey Sports Car Championships	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	May 22
3	New Jersey Race	New Jersey Motorsports Park	Millville, New Jersey	June 27
4	Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix	Miller Motorsports Park	Tooele, Utah	July 10
5	American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix	Lime Rock Park	Lakeville, Connecticut	July 24
6	Road Race Showcase	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 22
7	Grand Prix of Mosport	Mosport International Raceway	Bowmanville, Ontario	August 29
8	13th Annual Petit Le Mans	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	October 2

Entry List

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
Lites 1
Ferrari of Houston	00	Owen Kratz	1–2, 4, 6, 8
Ferrari of Houston	33	Richard Fant	1–2, 4, 6–8
Intersport Racing	2	David Ducote	1–2, 6–8
	3	Wayne Ducote	1, 3–4, 6–8
	37	James Kovacic	2
Eurosport Racing	4	Antonio Downs	1–7
	12	Matt Downs	1–7
	34	Jon Brownson	1–4, 6–8
	79	Lucas Downs	1–7
	88	Dan Weyland	1, 3–4, 6–8
Uberwurx Racing	5	Juan Carlos Martinez	6
Performance Tech	6	Daniel Goldburg	8
	8	Anthony Nicolosi	1–5, 8
	11	Johnny Meriggi	1–2, 4, 6, 8
	64	Patrick O'Neill	2–4
	96	Danny Mancini	1–6, 8
Comprent Motorsports	9	Jonathan Gore	6
	24	Jonathan Gore	1
	92	Richard Zober	3
Inspire Motorsports CORE Autosport^[2]	13	Gary Gibson	All
	21	Charlie Shears	All
	54	Jon Bennett	All
Barnhart Racing Kelly Moss Racing	17	Paul Barnhart III	1–2
Robali Motorsports	25	Robert Garcia	6
The Motorsports Group	28	Don Yount	1
Pabst Racing	40	Jim Ferro	6
Brian Graham Racing	52	Nick Majors	7
Gunnar Racing	66	Frankie Montecalvo	1–5
Leslie Racing Services	94	Darryl Shoff	1, 3, 5–6, 8
Green Earth Team Gunnar	99	Christian Zugel	1–2
Lites 2
Clueless Racing	07	Rick Bartuska	1, 6
CGI – DeAngelis Racing	7	Max DeAngelis	7–8
	22	Robert Sabato	7–8
	30	Michal Chlumecky	2, 7–8
WEST Racing	10	Eric Vassian	1, 8
WEST Racing	42	Jim Garrett	All
Wilzig Racing	15	Alan Wilzig	5
Factory 48 Motorsports	23	Lee Alexander	1–4, 6–8
Ansa Motorsports	44	Alain Nadal	1
Ansa Motorsports	68	Ray Langston	1
BERG Racing	48	Michael Hill	1
BERG Racing	75	John Weisberg	1–3, 5–8

Season results

Rnd	Circuit	Lites 1 Race One Winning Team	Lites 2 Race One Winning Team	Lites 1 Race Two Winning Team	Lites 2 Race Two Winning Team
Rnd	Circuit	Lites 1 Race One Winning Driver	Lites 2 Race One Winning Driver	Lites 1 Race Two Winning Driver	Lites 2 Race Two Winning Driver
1	Sebring	21 Inspire Motorsports	23 Factory 48 Motorsports	13 Inspire Motorsports	75 BERG Racing
1	Sebring	Charlie Shears	Lee Alexander	Gary Gibson	John Weisberg
2	Laguna Seca	37 Intersport Racing	75 BERG Racing	11 Performance Tech	75 BERG Racing
2	Laguna Seca	James Kovacic	John Weisberg	Johnny Meriggi	John Weisberg
3	New Jersey	21 Inspire Motorsports	23 Factory 48 Motorsports	12 Eurosport Racing	75 BERG Racing
3	New Jersey	Charlie Shears	Lee Alexander	Matt Downs	John Weisberg
4	Miller	66 Gunnar Racing	23 Factory 48 Motorsports	4 Eurosport Racing	23 Factory 48 Motorsports
4	Miller	Frankie Montecalvo	Lee Alexander	Antonio Downs	Lee Alexander
5	Lime Rock	13 Inspire Motorsports	75 BERG Racing	not held	not held
5	Lime Rock	Gary Gibson	John Weisberg	not held	not held
6	Road America	34 Eurosport Racing	75 BERG Racing	4 Eurosport Racing	07 Clueless Racing
6	Road America	Jon Brownson	John Weisberg	Antonio Downs	Rick Bartuska
7	Mosport	21 CORE Autosport	75 BERG Racing	79 Eurosport Racing	75 BERG Racing
7	Mosport	Charlie Shears	John Weisberg	Lucas Downs	John Weisberg
8	Road Atlanta	13 CORE Autosport	10 WEST Racing	8 Performance Tech	75 BERG Racing
8	Road Atlanta	Gary Gibson	Eric Vassian	Anthony Nicolosi	John Weisberg

Championship standings

Lites 1

Pos	Driver	SEB		LAG		NJ		MIL		LRP	ROA		MOS		ATL		Points
1	Charlie Shears	1	3	6	9	1	3	4	2	9	2	2	1	3	4	20
2	Antonio Downs	10	2	8	11	4	5	3	1	3	17	1	5	4			164
3	Matt Downs	7	19	2	6	3	1	10	8	6	22	4	3	2			150
4	Gary Gibson	19	1	18	22	15	16	7	17	1	4	3	2	17	1	2	149
5	Jon Brownson	8	4	10	8	8	7	6	10		1	8	7	5	2	3
6	Jon Bennett	4	6	13	21	2	6	2	4	13	8	20	6	8	6	18	133
7	Anthony Nicolosi	2	25	20	18	7	2	18	3	2					3	1	118
8	Lucas Downs	22	9	4	19	5	8	DNS	9	10	3	5	4	1			118
9	Johnny Meriggi	3	23	5	1			5	5		6	15			7	8	106
10	David Ducote	5	22	7	7						7	7	8	7	5	4	94
11	Frankie Montecalvo	6	7	9	16	6	4	1	16	4							90
12	Richard Fant	28	10	15	15			8	7		23	16	10	6	10	5	68
13	Danny Mancini	DSQ	26	16	10	9	10	12	12	7	11	22			16	9	55
14	Wayne Ducote	9	8			12	13	15	13		14	21	9	12	14	19	53
15	Owen Kratz	17	13	11	2			11	18		19	17			8	12	52
16	Darryl Shoff	11	11			16	DNS			5	9	11			11	16	48
17	Dan Weyland	21	12			14	14	13	11		21	18	12	11	15	13	44
18	Patrick O'Neill			3	17	10	DNS	9	6								42
19	James Kovacic			1	5												36
20	Jonathan Gore	25	29								5	6					22
21	Paul Barnhart III	27	5	12	20												16
22	Daniel Goldburg														9	11	15
23	Christian Zugel	14	17	DNS	13												12
24	Richard Zober					18	9										8
25	Juan Carlos Martinez										16	12					8
26	Nick Majors												13	18			8
27	Jim Ferro										10	23					6
28	Robert Garcia										12	19					5
—	Don Yount	23	28														0
Pos	Driver	SEB		LAG		NJ		MIL		LRP	ROA		MOS		ATL		Points

Lites 2

Pos	Driver	SEB		LAG		NJ		MIL		LRP	ROA		MOS		ATL		Points
1	John Weisberg	24	14	14	3	13	11			8	13	14	11	9	13	6	239
2	Lee Alexander	12	21	17	4	11	12	14	14		15	10	14	10	20	10
3	Jim Garrett	16	18	21	14	17	15	16	15	11	18	13	16	13	17	14	206
4	Michal Chlumecky			19	12								15	16	19	15	82
5	Rick Bartuska	13	15								20	9					70
6	Eric Vassian	20	16												12	7	64
7	Max DeAngelis												17	14	18	17	50
8	Alain Nadal	15	24														25
9	Ray Langston	18	20														24
10	Robert Sabato												18	15	DNS	21	22
11	Alan Wilzig									12							16
12	Michael Hill	26	27														16
Pos	Driver	SEB		LAG		NJ		MIL		LRP	ROA		MOS		ATL		Points

External links

Notes and References

News: Shears Clinches Lites 1 Championship. 2010-09-21. 2010-10-01. Prototype Lites. International Motor Sports Association. https://archive.today/20120918065753/http://www.prototypelites.com/news/shears-clinches-lites-1-championship/. 2012-09-18. dead.
News: Inspire Motorsports is now CORE Autosport. International Motor Sports Association. Rising Star. 2010-08-17. 2010-09-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20110215131530/http://www.prototypelites.com/news/inspire-motorsports-is-now-core-autosport/. 2011-02-15. dead.