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. He is a quiet, but determined driver who prefers to let his on-track actions do the talking for him. Cooper is known for his aggressive defensive driving and for being quick to deliver payback on the track. Despite these qualities, he is known to be fairly clean unless he feels he has 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. He is the son of Dale Roswell, and, unlike Roswell, is known for being very tech-savvy.

He also has acted as a talent scout, and is 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 his National Racing debut at Daytona, a race which he 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 he would never hold Marshall or the National Racing management with any respect. The next year Cooper played a role in the accident that killed Marshall.

As an Owner/Driver
Cooper started his own team, Ian Cooper Racing, with little success. He 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. His 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 he had missed two years eariler: Decatur -- and he 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. He outpaced Anthony Evans, but was outpaced by Scott Bates. He did not win a race but he did finish second at the Masaykring. Despite leading laps in the race, he was 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 his older magic, as he 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 replaced Waters after Indianapolis, but that was largely 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. He drove a race which was different from the style he 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 his high finishing in the final points was largely because of his stunning drives at Karjala and Indy. 2012 has been 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 he was 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, but Cooper will not be driving it, as he is 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 will only run in 2013 when they are given the Promoter's Option.

Entering the 2013 season, Cooper will be the only full-time driver to carry a three digit number on his 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 him. Meaning, no other driver in the field can use the same flag as him.


 * 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.


 * He is never directly quoted in press releases.