Christine Marie Team to Race Limited NASCAR Schedule

Indiana, PA March 23, 2007 -- Chris Evans, owner of Christine Marie Motorsports, has announced that although the he and driver Chris Cook have signed a full-season deal to compete in drifting events, the team will still compete at a few NASCAR races this season, albeit on a limited schedule.

"We’re in the process right now of looking at our commitments and other things," Evans said, "and trying to figure out what races we could run."

Evans and Cook, co-owners of the Shift Into Gear driving school, have joined the Mopar/NuFormz drifting team for 2007 and will compete in all seven Formula Drift series events, as well as a handful of NOPI competitions.

The busy schedule doesn’t leave a lot of time for NASCAR, Evans admitted.

"It could be pretty limited," he said. "My gut is telling me that we might have the time to run only one or two races."

Last season, Cook raced competed in five NASCAR Busch Series events and one Nextel Cup race.

"We hope to race a few select Busch races and possibly one or two Cup races," Cook said, "but we are so busy with the factory drifting effort that we will have to wait and see."

Evans said it was a tough decision to make the move to drifting, especially after so much time and effort had been put into forming a full-time NASCAR team. But it’s a decision the team is content with.

"It’s not that we’re not interested in NASCAR anymore," he said, "but when the best drifting team comes to you and wants you to join, you’d be foolish to turn it down."

ABOUT CHRISTINE MARIE MOTORSPORTS:

Christine Marie Motorsports, Inc. was founded in 2004 by Chris Evans, a successful western Pennsylvania businessman and amateur racer. Evans met veteran driver Chris Cook while attending the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, where Cook was an instructor. The two developed a friendship and later a business relationship that led Evans to form Christine Marie Motorsports, which is named after Evans’ youngest daughter, for the purpose of competing in NASCAR with Chris Cook as the driver. The team is based in Indiana, Pa.

ABOUT SHIFT INTO GEAR:

Shift Into Gear, Inc., is a driving school created by veteran driver Chris Cook. After a number of years working with amateur and professional drivers, Cook teamed up with Christine Marie Motorsports owner Chris Evans to help Shift Into Gear flourish as one of the top driving schools in the country. Cook has worked extensively with many top NASCAR drivers through the years, and has also taught drivers of all skill levels the different styles used in drifting, oval track racing and stunt racing. The school is based outside Charlotte, N.C.

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