Ian Cooper

"I've got some advice for you, Yuliya; run! Ian Cooper is not exactly a guy you want to have angry at you!"

- Dan Mullen, commentating on Yuliya Nosova wrecking Cooper during the 2013 Round of Carbondale.

Ian Cooper (real name unknown) is an American race car driver who is represented by the municipal flag of Chicago. They are a quiet, but determined driver who prefer to let their on-track actions do the talking for them. Cooper is known for their aggressive defensive driving and for being quick to deliver payback on the track. Despite these qualities, they are known to be fairly clean unless they feel they have been wronged. Cooper is known to be a team player, notably stepping out of a full-time ride to give Charlie Waters a chance in 2011. Their father is Dale Roswell, and, unlike Roswell, Cooper is known for being very tech-savvy.

They also have acted as a talent scout, and are known for giving Louis Kingston, Yamino Tenchi, Marcos Leonard, Tom Levin and Zelda Ashby their chances in the TM Master Cup Series.

National Racing
Cooper drove for National Racing beginning in 2004 replacing the retiring Glenn Kulscar. Cooper won on their National Racing debut at Daytona, a race which they won again in 2006. Ian had a legendary rivalry with the late Steve Marshall, and this, according to racing journalist Dan Mullen, "almost destroyed the entire team". They constantly tried to take each other out of various races, most notably the Karjala Grand Prix.

Both Cooper and Marshall were in contention for the championship when Cooper was released from National Racing before the season finale at Decatur. Unable to pick up a ride for the event, Cooper was unable to challange for the championship. This caused a furor in the garage, leading many to believe that Cooper was robbed of a championship. A fuming Cooper swore that they would never hold Marshall or the National Racing management with any respect. The next year, Cooper unintentionally played a role in the accident that killed Marshall.

As an Owner/Driver
Cooper started their own team, Ian Cooper Racing, with little success. They and Steve Marshall attempted to take each other into the wall multiple times in practice for the 2007 Round of Daytona. Cooper failed to qualify for that race. Their team did contend for the win at the 2007 TM Master Cup Series Round of France, but it was not Cooper, but French Sportscar driver Esmee Rosseau behind the wheel. Rosseau drove the Calton Morel Nova to a fifth place finish. The rest of the year was very rough for the team. During the qualifying race for the 2007 TM Master Cup Series Round of Alabama, Cooper hooked Drew Eisenman into Marshall, sending Marshall into the wall. Steve Marshall died of his injuries. This led some to believe that Ian Cooper was trying to wreck Marshall, however, it was shown that a right front tire failed on Eisenman's car. 2008 was a complete disaster for Cooper, making only one start. Ironically it was at the race they had missed two years eariler: Decatur -- and they took the pole.

JC Racing
After the 2008 season, JC Racing expanded from two cars to four, as it merged with Ian Riley's team and added the #2 car. Ian Cooper was selected to drive the Backyard Grill/Lysander sponsored Volpi. Cooper showed occasional good runs, but was the only one of the driver for the team not to win a race. Cooper left the team after 2009 and was replaced by Franz Redlich, who did not fare much better than Cooper had.

Team EFR
Cooper moved to Team EFR for 2010. They outpaced Anthony Evans, but was outpaced by Scott Bates. They did not win a race but did finish second at the Masaykring. Despite leading laps in the race, they were pushed down to part time status in 2011 for Team EFR in order to make room for the much more well-funded Charlie Waters.

Cooper's first outing of 2011 recaptured some of their older magic, as they easily qualified for the 2011 Karjala Grand Prix whereas Charlie Waters missed the prequalifying cut. Cooper's brilliant 4th place in the race made many question why Waters was brought in to replace him at Team EFR. After Waters' embarrassing performance in the 2011 Round of Russia, Cooper was called for stand-by duty should Waters be banned for two races, however, Waters was never suspended.

Cooper officially replaced Waters after Indianapolis due to Waters being injured in a prequalifying crash. Teammate Scott Bates also missed the race, leaving Cooper as the sole representative of Team EFR in the race. They drove a race which was different from the style they had become known for. Instead of blasting to the front as soon as possible, Cooper laid back, making use of mental games early in the race. Later in the race, Cooper snuck up on Ethan Everett to steal the win with a handful of laps to go, making effective use of backmarkers to impede Curtis Darcy's progress. In doing so, Cooper scored Team EFR's first win since Scott Bates took victory in Canada in 2009.

Cooper, like Waters, found it difficult to match Scott Bates on raw pace in 2011 and their high finishing in the final points was largely because of his stunning drives at Karjala and Indy. 2012 was very similar, with Cooper's points tally showing some strong runs laced with inconsistency caused either by mechanical failures (some of which occurred during races they were running strongly in) or crashes.

2013
Cooper is the mastermind of "Project Clockwork", a potential Independent's Trophy entry designed around radical new technologies. The driver was not known upon the project's launch, with Cooper staying with Team EFR for 2013. Yamino Tenchi was named the driver of Project Clockwork, now dubbed Clockwork Racing, during the leadup to the 2012 Round of Decatur. The team tested at Phoenix with Tenchi and two cars, one being their own Clockwork Midnight design, and the other being a modified MA04. The team only ran in 2013 when they were given the Promoter's Option.

Entering the 2013 season, Cooper was the only full-time driver to carry a three digit number on their car, retaining the number 777 instead of switching to #44 as was rumored throughout the offseason.

Trivia

 * Cooper is the only TM Master Cup series driver to race under a flag unique to them, namely the flag of Chicago.


 * Ian Cooper's helmet design is identical to the one Cynon uses for online racing. "Ian Cooper" is also Cynon's online racing alias, chosen because, if you change the 'n' to an 'm', it reads; "I am Cooper".


 * Cooper's reputation as an aggressive defensive driver is derived from what Cynon has heard other people say about himself.


 * They are never directly quoted in press releases.