Team Cobalt Aims for Championship in Sophomore Season

Five Cars Compete in Opening Grand-Am Cup Race at Daytona

Courtesy Dave Arnold

WARREN, Mich., Jan. 18, 2006 – Coming off a successful debut racing season where the Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged entries challenged for the Manufacturer’s Championship, Team Cobalt returns for its sophomore season with a trophy firmly in sight as the 2006 Grand-Am Cup season opens at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 27.

“The Cobalt SS Supercharged won three races and a pole positon in 2005, and we finished third in Manufacturer’s Championship points,” said Ken Wasmer, small car program engineering manager for the GM Performance Division, which provides engineering technical support for the Cobalt entrants.

“We’re pleased with our success, but for 2006, our sights are set much higher. This year we want to win the Manufacturer’s Championship,” Wasmer added.

The 200-mile Grand-Am Cup race on Daytona’s 3.56-mile combination infield road course and high-banked oval layout, will take the green flag on Friday, Jan. 27 at 2:15 p.m. EST. The Cobalts will compete in the newly re-named Sport Tuner class.

“Cars like the Cobalt SS Supercharged are very popular among today’s young ‘Tuner’ car enthusiasts,” added Wasmer. “We like the fact that Grand American is keeping up with the trends by re-naming the class.”

Three teams are bringing five Cobalts to Daytona. Mike Kuznicki’s Georgian Bay Motorsports team will have two, as will Californian Tom Lepper, and Powell Motorsport will have a single entry.

“The manufacturers we race against – nine of them last year – are very much the manufacturers we’re competing with in the marketplace,” added Wasmer. “The fact our cars performed so well in 2005 definitely helped sales.”

Jim Holtom of Carp, Ontario, Canada will drive the Georgian Bay team’s #01 car alongside Daniel Colembie, a Belgian now living in Malibu, Calif. Holtom’s son, Jamie, will share his #00 entry with a new co-driver, Grand-Am Cup veteran and two-time Rolex Sports Car Series driving champion Eric Curran of Chicopee, Mass.

Tom Lepper of Benecia, Calif. is paired for the second year with Bo Roach of Tulsa, Okla. in the #48 car, and Lepper’s son, Jeff, will drive #98 with V.J. Mirzayan of Fresno, Calif.

Devon Powell of Blackstock, Ontario, Canada, a Grand Am Cup driving titlist himself, has built a new Cobalt SS Supercharged (#06), which will be raced by veteran Ed Magner of Grand Blanc, Mich. and newcomer Phil Malgren of San Pablo, Calif.

The Holtom family made Grand American Road Racing Association history last June at Mosport Raceway when Jim and Jamie won the ST class race to become the sanctioning body’s first father-son winners – on Father’s Day weekend. To make it even better, Jamie, who was 17-years, 8-months, 19-days-old, also became Grand Am’s youngest winner.

Built on United Auto Workers assembly lines in Lordstown, Ohio, the Cobalt variants debuted in dealer showrooms in January 2005. The most powerful and most agile of the line, the SS Supercharged model with its 2.0 liter ECOTEC engine, was engineered by GM Performance Division.

GM Performance Division delivers compelling, low volume, high-performance production vehicles, and the Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged is the third performance car developed by GM Performance Division engineers. Others include the 400 hp Cadillac CTS-V, 469 hp STS-V and 443 hp XLR-V; Chevy SSR and the 395 hp Trailblazer SS; and the 205 hp Saturn ION Red Line.

The racing versions of the Cobalt SS Supercharged, like its competitors, are built to Grand American’s rules, which specify what parts can be upgraded.

Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged Powered Entrant/Driver Line-up:
00 Georgian Bay Motorsports – Jamie Holtom, Eric Curran
01 Georgian Bay Motorsports – Jim Holtom, Daniel Colembie
06 Powell Motorsport – Ed Magner, Phil Malgren
48 Team Cobalt California – Tom Lepper, Bo Roach
98 Team Cobalt California – Jeff Lepper, V. J. Mirzayan

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader since 1931. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 325,000 people around the world. It has manufacturing operations in 32 countries and its vehicles are sold in 200 countries. In 2004, GM sold nearly 9 million cars and trucks globally, up 4 percent and the second-highest total in the company’s history. GM’s global headquarters are at the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.