Reston, Va. (June 7th)

In a surprise move, East Coast Honda Challenge championship competitors Jon Kofod of Flatoutracing.net and Team Hankook's Ian Carpenter have decided to merge their teams for the upcoming 2005 SCCA and NASA season. Carpenter and Kofod were the two main championship rivals in last season's fiercely contested NASA Pro Racing East Coast Honda Challenge, which led to the closest title finish in Honda Challenge history.

Also returning to the team is last season's runner up in H4 class, Andrew Zimmermann, who will be assisting Flatoutracing/Team Hankook along with newcomer Leo Wang. All four drivers will be contesting the H4 class championship as well as competing in a number of SCCA races in the hotly contested ITA class.

Carpenter runs a successful driver develop program and race shop out of Wayne, Pennsylvania (www.iCarp.net) and is a past professional racer with 15 years of race experience. In addition to his race shop, Carpenter is a race/driving instructor at Beaverun Motorsport Complex and Summit Point Raceway. He has campaigned a variety of racecars during his career, from open wheeled Formula Fords, to various vintage racecars, and most recently IT production-based cars. Along with Kofod, Carpenter was the Honda Challenge H4 Co-Champ in 2004 taking 6 wins and several track records along with way. In addition to racing in H4 this season, Carpenter will be coaching his new recruit.

Kofod runs the www.flatoutracing.net team, which shared the H4 title with Carpenter last season. Kofod took home 7 wins, including the last 3 H4 class wins of the season in 2004. Kofod also competed for Kingrat Motorsports in 2004 in ITS class racing the teams Acura Integra GSR. Kofod has competed successfully in everything from Formula Dodge, Spec Racer Ford, where he was runner up for Rookie of the year in SCCA in 2001, to GT1 class cars, and most recently IT production cars in both ITS and H4. In addition Kofod is serving as chief test and development driver for FunkionAuto Group which will be the East Coast distributor for the popular UK based Radical SR3's and SR4 race cars.

Kofod and Carpenter first met at Carolina Motorsports Park during the first round of the 2004 Honda Challenge season where Carpenter was coaching two new drivers. Kofod, Carpenter and Zimmermann became close friends throughout the Honda Challenge season last year and Carpenter assisted in helping prep Kofod's car despite their fierce on track battles.

"I learned quite a bit last season from Ian and felt that I could greatly benefit from his professional racing expertise and coaching. Ian's past professional experience is a great asset and I felt that I could go to the next level with his coaching," stated Kofod.

This past month the team won the grueling Kumho Tires 12 Hour at the Point endurance race on it's first try placing first in class and 7th overall. Kofod co-drove with new teammates Carpenter, Zimmermann and vintage racer Matt Foley.

For additional information please visit www.iCarp.net and www.flatoutracing.net . Sponsors for this season are Hankook Tires, Tein Suspension Systems and Guident Technologies. The team will be called the iCarp/Flatoutracing team sponsored by Hankook Tires and Guident Technologies.