Cooper rubber praised ahead of Atlantic season

The new tyres on which the 2007 Cooper Tires Champ Car Atlantic championship will be run have won universal praise from teams and drivers ahead of the season-opener at Las Vegas on April 6-8.

During two official test sessions at Sebring, Florida, and Houston, Texas, the tyres excelled in hot, cold and wet weather conditions,with Canadian James Hinchcliffe shattering the Atlantic lap record at the 2.38-mile MSR Houston road circuit despite the chilly conditions.

“The tyres were really impressive all weekend,” said Hinchcliffe. “They were very consistent. To blitz the lap record in conditions like this says a lot for the quality.”

At Sebring, the tyres had to deal with both hot and wet conditions, and once again passed with flying colours. The wet tyre allowed the cars to maintain a neutral balance whether running on a fully wet circuit, or following the dry line, and tyre damage was minimal.

Walker Racing team boss, Rob Edwards, said: “We’ve seen in the two open tests that the tyre has performed even better than we expected from the testing we did last summer. We will definitely see closer racing this season because of it.”

Cooper Tire motorsports technical manager, Paul Coates, said the crew was delighted with the performance of the tyres, and the feedback of the teams. “We’ve found that the tyres can provide significantly longer periods of running and that they respond well to small car changes, even after 120 miles,” he added.

The final pre-season test takes place at Laguna Seca, California, this week (March 7/8), with the opening round of the series on April 6-8.