Daytona Beach, Florida - Kenton Koch could continue his march toward history - and a Lites 1 season championship - with victories in Rounds 7 and 8 of the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda championship July 10-12 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Koch, from Glendora, California, has won five of the first six rounds of the season in the No. 60 JDC Motorsports entry. That ties a series record set in 2012 by Tristan Nunez and matched last season by Mikhail Goikhberg, who both won five of the first six rounds of the season. Nunez and Goikhberg went on to win the Lites 1 championship those respective seasons.

No driver has won six of the first seven or seven of the first eight rounds of a Prototype Lites season. So Koch, 21, is on the cusp of yet another accomplishment in his sterling rookie year.

Round 7, a 30-minute race, will start at 6:10 p.m. (ET) Saturday, July 11 at CTMP. The 45-minute Round 8 will start at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 12.

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda is an official International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Development Series, providing thrilling action and cultivating future drivers for prototype racing in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Two classes of competition take drivers and teams down unique, exciting roads of prototype sports car racing, with all competitors racing in Élan DP02 chassis powered by Mazda engines and riding on Cooper Tires.

Nimble, high-tech, purpose-built Lites 1 machines pack in the power with a 230-horsepower, 2-liter Mazda engine designed to prepare aspiring professionals for prototype competition in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and offer a challenging environment for mature semi-professional drivers, including competition in a Masters Championship. Equally capable and cost-effective Lites 2 machines offer new competitors a perfect introduction to the world-class competition offered by IMSA.

Koch enters the only Canadian rounds of the series on a four-round win streak. He won Rounds 3 and 4 in mid-April at NOLA Motorsports Park and Rounds 5 and 6 in late June at Watkins Glen International in eerie similarity. Both events featured the first round taking place in sunny conditions with the second round taking place in a deluge, and Koch put his considerable skills on display in dry and wet track conditions.

That success has helped Koch build a 30-point lead over second place and JDC teammate Clark Toppe in the Lites 1 series standings. Koch has 118 points - just two shy of perfection. Toppe, the winner of Round 2 in mid-March at Sebring, is second with 88 points.

The fast, fearsome, 10-turn, 2.459-mile (3.957 km) circuit threw a surprise into the championship race last season. Goikhberg entered the weekend with five wins in the first six rounds, but young Canadian driver Remo Ruscitti won both rounds in his only starts of the season.

This year's field features no one-off additions like Ruscitti last year, so it will be up to the series regulars to try and stop Koch's run to the top step of the podium.

Toppe, 17, from The Woodlands, Texas, has shown tremendous consistency in his first season in the series. He has produced four podium finishes in six starts in the No. 10 JDC Motorsports entry.

Robert Alon also is a strong contender to challenge Koch for victory. Alon, from Encino, California, is third in the standings with 73 points in the No. 00 Performance Tech Motorsports entry. He pushed Koch to the limit in dry conditions in Round 5 at Watkins Glen, finishing second by .396 of a second. It was the closest finish of the season.

Alon recorded his career-best finish of second for the first time last year at CTMP.

Matt McMurry, 17, from Phoenix, also is driving to a strong season in the No. 20 JDC Motorsports entry. McMurry is fourth in the standings with 69 points and has two podium finishes.

John Falb, from Las Vegas, has dominated Lites 1 Masters competition with five wins in six starts this season in the No. 77 ONE Motorsports entry as he aims for his second consecutive season title in the class. He is fifth in the overall championship with 66 points and leads Joel Janco by 28 points in the Lites 1 Masters standings.

Falb finished third overall in Round 8 last season at CTMP.

Austin Versteeg, 15, from Sandy, Utah, is another young driver who is making regular trips to the podium this season. Series rookie Versteeg is in his first season of auto racing after a standout karting career and has produced two podium finishes in the No. 16 Performance Tech Motorsports Élan DP02 chassis powered by a Mazda engine. He is sixth in points with 59.

While Falb holds a healthy lead in the Lites 1 Masters class, Janco has proved to be a formidable foe. Janco, from Key Largo, Florida, has parlayed an increased commitment to fitness this season into four second-place finishes in the class in the No. 25 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

Don Yount, from Dallas, also has shown consistent improvement and results in Lites 1 Masters this season in his No. 28 Yount Motorsports car. He has three podium finishes in 2015, including two second-place results behind Falb last month at Watkins Glen. He is third in the Lites 1 Masters standings with 83 points, just three behind Janco.

The Lites 2 title race is the tightest in the championship. Todd Slusher leads two-time reigning champion Brian Alder, 116-104, in the standings.

Slusher, from Las Vegas, has four wins and two second-place finishes this season in the No. 62 ONE Motorsports entry. Alder, from Dublin, Ohio, has two wins and two second-place finishes in the No. 22 BAR1 Motorsports car.

But there's little doubt Alder enters this weekend with confidence he can gain ground on Slusher. Alder swept both Lites 2 rounds last year at CTMP.

Two veteran Canadian drivers will compete on home soil for Eurosport Racing in Rounds 7 and 8. Michal Chlumecky, from Windsor, Ontario, will aim for a Lites 1 Masters podium finish. Max De Angelis, from Belle River, Ontario, will make his third and fourth starts of the season in Lites 2.

This is the 10th season of Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda competition. IMSA sanctions a seven-venue, 14-round schedule for the 2015 season. The series runs 10 of its 14 rounds during TUDOR Championship events, providing plenty of high-profile visibility for teams and drivers at the largest sports car racing events in North America.

All events consist of 30-minute and 45-minute sprint races.

Follow IMSA on Facebook and @IMSA on Twitter with the hashtag #CTPL for updates on the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda. Live timing for every race is available at IMSA.com and on the new official IMSA mobile app available for iOS, Android and Windows.

Schedule
Practice: 8:45-9:15 a.m. and 3-3:40 p.m. (ET) Friday, July 10
Qualifying: 8:35-8:55 a.m. Saturday, July 11
Round 1 (30 minutes): 6:10-6:40 p.m. Saturday, July 11
Round 2 (45 minutes): 3:30-4:15 p.m. Sunday, July 12

Race Coverage
Live timing: All on-track sessions at scoring.imsa.com or on new IMSA mobile app for iOS, Android or Windows
Twitter: Live text commentary from all sessions at @IMSALive
For more information about Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, visit www.imsa.com, follow hashtag #CTPL @IMSA on Twitter or IMSA on Facebook.

Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda

Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Development Series, enters its 10th season in 2015. The series provides thrilling action and grooms drivers for future TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competition in the Prototype and Prototype Challenge classes.

The two classes of competition in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda series take drivers and teams down unique, exciting roads of prototype sports car racing. Nimble, high-tech, purpose-built Lites 1 machines pack in the power with a 230-horsepower, 2-liter Mazda engine designed to prepare aspiring professionals for prototype competition in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and offer a challenging environment for mature semi-professional drivers, including competition in a Masters Championship. Equally capable and cost-effective Lites 2 machines offer new competitors a perfect introduction to the world-class competition offered by IMSA.

ABOUT IMSA

The International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 with a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, as well as four single-make series: Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama; Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin; Ferrari Challenge North America; and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. IMSA - a company within the NASCAR Holdings group - is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The partnership enables selected TUDOR Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Canadians In BOLD