Bay Area Race Car Driver to Compete Sunday At Laguna Seca Raceway.

Sports Editors

LAGUNA SECA, MONTEREY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 2001

Professional race car driver Rick Sutherland will be the only Bay Area resident competing in his class at the Monterey Sports Car Championships this weekend at Laguna Seca Raceway.

Sutherland, 45, is unusual in that he was first a successful businessman and president of a $50 million-plus company, before retiring to concentrate on professional sports car racing.

Sutherland and teammate Jon Field will race a Lola B2K/ 10 Judd Prototype designed by United Kingdom-based Lola Cars in the American Le Mans Series at noon Sunday. They are the only two Americans racing in their class.

"It's competitive," said Sutherland, who lives with his wife and two children in Los Gatos. "It's fun, but very demanding. You have to be in a certain place, in a certain frame of mind to be able to run at speeds up to 200 miles an hour."

Sutherland is the former president, co-owner and co-founder of the Tire Service by Wheel Works chain, which he founded at age 19 and grew into a $50 million business. He began racing at the amateur level in 1982, when he started Wheel Works Racing. In 1995, at age 40, Sutherland advanced to the professional sports car level.

He placed fifth in the prototype class in March 2000 in the American Le Mans Series 12-hour race in Sebring, Fla. In 1998, Sutherland sold Wheel Works but continued working for the company until November 2000, when he retired to devote his time to professional racing.

Field, Sutherland's teammate, owns InterSport Racing and is the owner and CEO for the Field Development Group and the Banana Joe's Sports Bar and Grille, Inc. Field lives with his family in Dublin, Ohio.

Sunday's race will feature cars in the American Le Mans Series. The ALMS is comprised of two types of race cars divided into four classes. The Le Mans Prototype class features exotic two-seat racing cars that can top speeds of 200 mph. Spectators can easily see the driver because the cockpit design is open.

The Lola Prototype Sutherland will drive features a chassis with a carbon composite monocoque and body.

Its engine, the Judd GV4 V10, is derived from a Formula 1 and produces about 630 horsepower at 11,000 rpm. The compact, lightweight four-liter, four-valve aluminum alloy powerplant is one of the most sophisticated in sports car racing.

The race will last two hours and 45 minutes.

A high-resolution photograph of Sutherland driving the Lola B2K/ 10 Judd Prototype, suitable for print production, can be downloaded at www.givememore.com/sutherland/sutherland.html.