For immediate release: April 14, 2004

Rapier racing is saddened to announce the untimely passing away of co-founder and driver Zack Zarcadoolas.

Zack died of a heart attack in the early hours of the morning of the 13 April 2004 at his home in Douglasville, Georgia.

In the late 60's and early 70's Zack won Championships in both Formula Car and Production Based Vehicles racing in SCCA and FIA series. For 20 years Zack left racing and after leaving a division of B.F. Goodrich as Marketing Director formed his own company. Returning to racing he won the 1996 Sprint Challenge Championship in a Lotus Esprit X180R, driven a Porsche in Grand-Am Cup in 2000, and raced all types of sports cars over the years, including prototypes. He was an active participant in vintage and historic racing - always at the helm of a Lotus. Zack was an instructor with both Panoz and Porsche driving schools.

Zack was the president of Lotus Limited Southeast (LLSE) for many years as well as being the President for the national Lotus club 'Lotus Limited'. He organized the national Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG) in 1996 and 1998. Many Lotus Limited Club members memory of Zack was his driving skill in the hot laps he often gave to club members.

Arnie Johnson CEO of Lotus Cars USA counted Zack as a good friend, "if you were in trouble and had only one phone call, you could not do worse than call Zack." Arnie always found him to be particularly loyal to the Lotus marquee. In particular giving his time to help the Lotus name, "he had assisted LCU with many projects and had never taken a nickel," said Arnie Johnson.

Zack, Charles Rayhall, and long time friend Kirt Wightman founded rapier racing in 2003. The goal of the Team was to showcase the final edition of the timelessly beautiful Lotus Esprit V8 and bring Lotus back to the consciousness of North American motorsport fans. The team was on a steep learning curve, but Zack felt that the hardest work was behind the team, and looked forward to the rest of the season.

Zack will be remembered as a great driver, a great all-around guy, and a Lotus man to the core. He will be sorely missed by his team, his friends and anyone who had the pleasure of his company.

Zack is survived by his wife, Cynthia, his son and his mother. Our thoughts are with them, and that in time their grief will be replaced by warm memories of their life together.

As per Zacks wishes, there be no memorial service, however, condolences for the family should be sent to Rapier Racing LLC, 6209 Oak Ridge Commerce Way, SW Austell, GA 30168.

The changes made to the car have given the team more speed. The practise results were encouraging as the team was only 4-6 seconds off the pace set by the class leading Porsche 996s.

In qualifying Zack put the car 23rd in class, picking up nearly 2 seconds to pull within 4.5 sec of the pole Audi S4.

In the race the team ran into some new problems and fell back after improving their lap times. All of the great effort came to an end on Lap 38. The Esprit was pulled behind the pit wall and finished 43rd overall and 24th in class GS.

Seems a leaky head gasket pressurized the cooling system, which blew a hose. The team learned a lot about the car and problems caused by the added reliable horsepower from the chargecooler. They plan to forego the Phoenix event and concentrate on fixing the problem areas and doing some testing.

Photos by Karl-Franz Marquez and stock Grand American photographer.