HVM Racing Announces Partnership with Lotus for 2012

November 17, 2011 - Indianapolis, IN - HVM Racing is proud to officially announce its partnership with Lotus, world-renowned sportscar manufacturer, for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series.

The iconic, British-based company was the obvious choice for Keith Wiggins, HVM Racing team owner. He has known the companies involved for many years through his racing background in Europe, winning in all categories, including Formula 3000 and competing in Formula One. Wiggins attested that the HVM team aimed to execute this partnership from the start.

"Despite the choices, once it was apparent that Lotus would produce an engine, it was a clear decision for us to run with them," said Wiggins. "I have great respect, confidence and enthusiasm in the product they will produce. I have good historical knowledge of the companies involved and their abilities. Being the first team to commit reflects this and being an integral part of the Lotus development process is important to the re-establishment of HVM as a leading team, this time in the IZOD IndyCar Series."

Group Lotus Director of Motorsports Operations, Miodrag Kotur, echoes the same sentiment and looks forward to the emerging partnership of Lotus HVM Racing.

"We are delighted to be partnering with such a well-established and ambitious team as HVM," Kotur said. "We're pleased that HVM has shown such faith in Lotus at the start of a new chapter of our commitment to the IZOD IndyCar Series. We have been working tirelessly on our engine program since we announced our intention to produce a new engine in line with the new rules and direction of the Series. We believe that our efforts will pay dividends as the numbers that are coming from our dyno testing are extremely encouraging. We have also managed to produce a very light power-plant, in the true spirit of Lotus. However, we are keen to test the package on-track and look forward to our first test in early January, slightly later than originially planned but designed to give us more time to fine-tune our package before taking to the track."

In addition, Lotus HVM Racing will continue its prominent partnership with Entergy Nuclear and the mission to spread the message of the Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign. After a high-profile 2011 season, the partnership shall continue to increase awareness and expand its education program through the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

About HVM Racing
HVM Racing was founded by Keith Wiggins and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. HVM enters 2011 as its tenth year of competition since forming in 2001 and has earned six victories, two pole positions, and an additional 16 podiums. They earned "Indianapolis Rookie of the Year" honors with driver Simona De Silvestro at the 2010 event and since joining the IZOD INDYCAR Series in 2008, the team has earned nine top-10 finishes. HVM finished fourth and third, respectively, in the Champ Car World Series in 2006 and 2007, and earned drivers Mario Dominguez and Robert Doornbos Rookie of the Year honors in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Follow HVM Racing at www.hvmracing.com, on twitter at www.twitter.com/HVMracing, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/HVMRacing.

About Lotus
For further details on Lotus Motorsport and Group Lotus please visit our dedicated media site www.lotusnewera.com using the following details:

User name: media
Password: lotus

Group Lotus plc, is based in Norfolk, UK, and has three operating divisions: Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering and Lotus Motorsport.

Lotus Cars builds world class, high performance sports cars including the award-winning Evora, the iconic Elise and the stunning Exige and the road / track orientated 2-Eleven. Lotus New Era, the future product line-up, was unveiled in Paris on 30th September 2010 featuring the new Esprit, Elan, Elite, Elise and Eterne.

Lotus Engineering provides comprehensive and versatile consultancy services to many of the world's OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy. Global facilities include those in the US, Malaysia, China and offices in Germany and Japan. Lotus is a global high-tech company, committed to driving forward technology for both Lotus Cars and its Engineering clients, spearheading research into such areas as hybrids, electric vehicles and renewable fuels.

Lotus Motorsport operates the motorsports activities of Lotus and includes the strategy to return the Lotus name to a great number of series including endurance racing with GT2, GT4 and LMP2, single seater racing with GP2, GP3 and IndyCar. Lotus has also returned to F1 with Lotus Renault GP from the start of the 2011 F1 racing season onwards.

For more information about Group Lotus please contact:
PR Department, Group Lotus plc, Potash Lane, Hethel, Norfolk, UK, NR14 8EZ
Tel: +44 (0)1953 608264 Email: pr@lotuscars.com

About Entergy
Entergy is the second largest owner and operator of U.S. nuclear energy plants. They operate or provide management services to 12 reactors at 10 sites. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity and delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and more than 15,000 employees. Follow at www.NuclearCleanAirEnergy.com and www.entergy-nuclear.com; on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EntergyNuclear and www.twitter/NuclearCleanAir, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/Nuclear Clean Air Energy.