Atlantic series gears up for Road America doubleheader

Leading the way, as he also did heading into Round 3 at Mont-Tremblant in June, is Canadian driver James Hinchcliffe in the No. 3 Indeck/Tire Rack/NOCO machine for Forsythe/Pettit Racing. Topped by a victory in Round 2 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May and back-to-back third-place results in the doubleheader at Edmonton last month, Hinchcliffe has finished all five races this season inside the top 10 and hasn’t finished worse than fourth in any of the last four races. As a result, he leads Finnish rookie Markus Niemela by five points, 118-113.

Niemela returns to the cockpit of the No. 8 Mr. Jones Bar & Kitchen/Rauma Town/Turku Karting machine for Brooks Associates Racing this weekend still looking for his first career Atlantic victory, but well within sight of the championship lead and with plenty of time to make his move. Like Hinchcliffe, Niemela has also finished inside the top 10 in every race this season—in fact, he hasn’t finished worse than seventh this year—and he owns a pair of second-place results.

American rookie Jonathan Summerton has established himself as another strong contender for championship honors, especially with a dominating victory in the second race of the Edmonton doubleheader two weeks ago. He trails Hinchcliffe by 17 points and Niemela—who leads the Rookie of the Year championship—by 12 markers, but another strong doubleheader in the No. 36 Newman Wachs Racing entry this weekend will close that gap even more.

Another American driver, Jonathan Bomarito, charged back into the championship fight in a big way thanks to a great weekend in Edmonton. Bomarito brought Mathiasen Motorsports its first-ever victory in Atlantic competition in Race #1 of the doubleheader and finished fourth in Race #2 to take over fourth in the standings. He is just 19 points behind Hinchcliffe as the series heads to Road America, where he recorded his first career Atlantic victory in 2006. He will drive the No. 26 Del Taco/Stone Brewing/Discount Tire/RLM Investments machine,

Rounding out the top five in the point standings is Dutch racer Junior Strous in the No. 6 NEM/Shell/HTP/Muermans Group/Red, White & Bluezz machine for Condor Motorsports/Team Holland. Strous knows just how quickly the championship lead can change hands in an Atlantic doubleheader, as he went into the Edmonton weekend as the points leader and came out in fifth. However, Strous dominated the weekend at Mont-Tremblant in June en route to his first career Atlantic victory and Road America’s similar characteristics could vault Strous back toward the head of the points table this weekend.

One of the fastest drivers throughout the season has been American Carl Skerlong in the No. 14 King Taco entry from Pacific Coast Motorsports. Skerlong hasn’t qualified worse than fourth all season and scored his first career Atlantic pole position for Race #2 at Edmonton. He has also finished three of the first five races of the season on the podium but finished 19th or worse in the other two races, putting him sixth in the point standings heading into this weekend. He finished third in last year’s Atlantic race at Road America and could pick up his first career Atlantic victory in one of the two races.

Rookie Dane Cameron is another American rookie who has come on strong of late, finishing each of the last three races inside the top five in the No. 19 MAZDASPEED/Finlay Motorsports/Lynx Racing machine for Genoa Racing. The 2007 Star Mazda champion also started from the front row for the first time in his Atlantic career with a second-place qualifying performance for Race #2 at Edmonton. He currently stands seventh in the overall championship and third in the Rookie of the Year standings.

Canadian racer Kevin Lacroix is another driver who has been quick virtually throughout the season but who has suffered from some bad luck in the No. 25 Uni-Select/Deans Knight/Wasteco entry from Walker Racing. Lacroix opened the year with a third-place performance in Long Beach and after two races outside the top 10, scored back-to-back seventh-place results in Edmonton. He heads to Road America standing eighth in the championship and looking for the second victory of his Atlantic career.

Mexican driver David Garza, who is currently ranked ninth in the championship standings, will not be competing in this weekend’s doubleheader at Road America due to a training injury and will be replaced by his countryman, David Martinez, in the No. 7 Axtel/Tecate/Madisa entry for Forsythe/Pettit Racing. Martinez is no stranger to Atlantic competition with back-to-back fifth-place performances in the 2005 and 2006 Atlantic standings, and he finished third in the Atlantic event at Road America in 2005.

The only woman in the Atlantic field, Swiss driver Simona De Silvestro is 10th in the championship heading into this weekend’s doubleheader. She opened the year with a popular victory in Long Beach and has finished inside the top 10 in four of her five starts this season. She will drive the No. 34 Nuclear Clean Air Energy/NEI/Entergy machine for Newman Wachs Racing.

Canadian rookie Daniel Morad will once again pilot the No. 70 Metro Directories of Georgia/Grapeking machine this weekend and the 2007 Formula BMW USA champion is looking to build upon three top-10 results from the first five races. He is joined on the two-car Eurointernational team by Venezuelan rookie Luis Schiavo in the No. 46 Constructora Iriaca/Astaltatora Maracay/Transporte Jumbo/Energy Freight System machine. Schiavo scored his best result of the season in Race #2 at Edmonton with a 14th-place performance.

Dutch rookie Dominick Muermans will be looking to return to the top 10 this weekend in the No. 9 Hugenholz Property Group/Jumbo Supermarkten/Muermans Group machine for Condor Motorsports/Team Holland. He earned a career-best result of fifth in May’s Monterey Festival of Speed and also finished 10th at Mont-Tremblant in June. He is teamed with Strous and Brazilian rookie Douglas Soares on the three-car Condor Motorsports operation. Soares took an Atlantic career-best result of 12th in Race #2 at Edmonton aboard the No. 11 Banco BMG machine.

Second-year Atlantic racer Frankie Muniz returns for his second Atlantic start at Road America having finished inside the top 15 in every race this season. The actor-turned-racer hasn’t finished lower than 13th in the last four races aboard the No. 41 PCM/USRT machine alongside teammate Skerlong with Pacific Coast Motorsports.

Rookies Greg and Leo Mansell will be making their first Atlantic appearances this weekend at Road America with Walker Racing. Greg picked up the best result of his Atlantic career with a ninth-place run in the No. 5 Sunseeker entry in Race #1 at Edmonton, while Leo’s best run to date was an 11th-place performance at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May. The brothers are the sons of 1992 Formula 1 World Champion and 1993 IndyCar champion Nigel Mansell.

Finnish rookie Henri Karjalainen had his best Atlantic weekend to date at Edmonton with runs of 14th and 11th and will be looking to bring that momentum with him to Road America. He drives the No. 2 GNLD machine for Jensen MotorSport. American Tom Sutherland, meanwhile, is back for another weekend of Atlantic competition in the No. 88 Brooks Associates Racing entry as a teammate to Karjalainen’s countryman, Niemela. Sutherland finished 10th in his first Atlantic race of the season in Race #1 of the Edmonton doubleheader.

All Atlantic race cars are Swift 016.a Atlantic chassis powered by 300-horsepower Mazda-Cosworth MZR engines capable of speeds in excess of 175 mph. Each entry will ride on new Cooper Atlantic racing slicks and rain tires throughout the weekend.

The weekend schedule for the Atlantic Championship gets underway on Friday, August 8 with a 45-minute practice session beginning at 9:00 a.m. Central Time, followed by qualifying for Race #1 from 1:00 to 1:35 p.m. and an all-driver autograph session at the Cooper Tire display from 4:00 to 4:45 p.m.

On Saturday, the Atlantic machines return to the track at 8:45 a.m. CT for a 35-minute qualifying session for Race #2, followed by the first race of the weekend for Atlantic on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. Sunday’s schedule calls for a warm-up from 8:30 to 8:45 a.m. with Race #2 slated to begin at 1:30 p.m. Both races will be 45 minutes in length and will feature standing starts.