The X1 Goes to America — and Lou Werner Is Already Racing It
Arizona-based architect and racing enthusiast Lou Werner became one of the first international buyers of the Hyper Racer X1, and has since become the car's most active international ambassador.
Jon Crooke will tell you that the X1 was designed to fix what was wrong with Australian formula racing. That's true. But a car good enough to fix Australian formula racing turned out to also be good enough to sell in the United States — a rather larger market with rather higher standards for what a serious race car should be.
Lou Werner is a retired architect from Paradise Valley, Arizona. He's not a professional racing driver, not a team owner, not a motorsport business. He's a man who loves racing and wanted to go circuit racing seriously, without the financial burden that a Radical SR3 or an F4 car would impose. When he discovered the Hyper Racer X1, he bought one. Then he raced it. Then he bought another.
Werner now operates as the X1's authorised dealer for the United States under the banner of Formwerks Racing — an entity he created with a clear purpose: to establish the X1 as a competitive club racing car in the American market, and to create a racing series around it.
Werner's enthusiasm for the car is the kind that manufacturers dream about. He bought the car because he wanted to race it, not because he wanted to sell it. The dealership came second. That sequence of events — buyer becomes advocate becomes dealer — is the most credible form of distribution a manufacturer can build.