Atlantic Championship

The Atlantics series is a developmental open-wheel racing series in North America, also called a "ladder series". In 2005, a new factor was announced to solidify this reputation as the last series in which a driver will compete before moving to Champ Car, or the highest levels of sports car racing such as American Le Mans. A US$2 million prize was announced for the winner of the 2006 racing season and future seasons, with the restriction that it can only be used towards the cost of racing in the Champ Car World Series.[1] Simon Pagenaud became champion in 2006 and claimed the first such prize. He promptly moved to Champ Car in 2007 to race for Walker Racing.

The series champion for 2007, Raphael Matos, also won the $2 million prize towards a Champ Car ride. However, he elected not to accept it as he felt that without other sponsorship, he would be driving for a non-competitive team.[2] Matos instead accepted an offer from the Andretti Green Racing team in the developmental Firestone Indy Lights Series instead, where he was promised the chance to race in the Indy 500 and a future ride in the IndyCar Series.[3] 2007 runner-up Franck Perera, who finished on the podium eight times during the season and won three races ultimately signed to race with Champ Car team Conquest Racing. When Champ Car was purchased by IndyCar prior to the 2008 season, Conquest joined IndyCar with Perera.

As of 2009, the series offers an unrestricted $1 million prize to the season champion, $500,000 to the runner-up, and $250,000 to the third-place finisher on the season. These season rewards are part of total of $3 million in total prize money, which also features $50,000 for each race win, and other bonuses such as a monetary pole position reward.[4]

Giacomo Ricci (foreground) passing Frankie Muniz in their Swift 016.a machines during the 2007 Houston race.

The history of Formula Atlantic begins with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Formula B class, created in 1965 for single-seat formula cars with engines not exceeding 1600 cm³ in capacity. Prior to Formula Atlantic, professional Formula B races were held in the United States from 1965 to 1972, first with the SCCA's poorly supported Formula A, then as part of the SCCA Formula Continental Championship in 1968 (when they were largely overshadowed by the V8-powered Formula 5000 cars) and then as an independent series from 1969 to 1972.

Formula Atlantic as a class evolved in the United Kingdom in 1971 from the US Formula B rules, with 1600 cm³ production-based twin-cam engines (initially dominated by Lotus-Ford Twin Cam-based dry-sump Cosworth Mk.XIII, then by Cosworth BDD when the class became Atlantic in the United States, however other engines like Alfa Romeo and BMW were also eligible). Conceived by John Webb of Brands Hatch (who would later also develop the Sports 2000 class) as a category for national competitors with the performance near a Formula Two car but running costs at or below that of a contemporary Formula Three car. A single (Yellow Pages championship ran in 1971–72, with a rival BP backed series appearing in 1973. 1974 saw the BP series changing sponsor to John Player and the Yellow Pages series becoming backed by John Webb's MCD organisation and Southern Organs. In practice most top drivers competed in both series and there were no date clashes. Only one series ran in 1975–76, in the final year taking the title 'Indylantic and adopting Indianapolis-style single-car qualifying. But the formula was under threat from Formula 3 and no series ran in 1977–78. The series returned in 1979 with backing (for one season only) from Hitachi and continued to 1983, with diminishing grids and few new cars appearing.

As a result of its similarity to Formula 2 and Formula 3 in terms of chassis regulations, Formula Atlantic typically used chassis closely related to these cars — with performance somewhere in between the two — so most of the manufacturers were familiar from those classes, particularly the likes of Brabham, Lotus, March, Chevron early on, with Ralt and then Reynard later. US manufacturer Swift came to displace the British imports and dominate in North America. Several smaller marques also appeared.

The first professional races run under Formula Atlantic rules in North America were conducted in 1974 by the Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs (CASC) in Canada (now ASN Canada), drawing much attention and large fields due to its national CTV television coverage. IMSA in the United States took advantage of the large number of teams and organized its own series in 1976.

During these years, the series attracted guest drivers from Europe, including Formula One, particularly at the Trois-Rivières street race in Quebec, Canada. Guest drivers included James Hunt, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Riccardo Patrese, Patrick Depailler, Jacques Laffite, Didier Pironi and Vittorio Brambilla.

In 1977, the SCCA sanctioned the US events and in 1978 the CASC and SCCA series merged and conducted the series jointly until 1983, when it ran as the Formula Mondial North American Cup; Michael Andretti won the championship. The series could not sustain the success of earlier seasons and was cancelled for 1984.

In its place a "Pacific" series was conducted exclusively on the US West Coast in 1985. This rebirth expanded to an East Coast "Atlantic" series the following year and the two ran concurrently through 1990. From 1990 to 2005, the series was sponsored by Toyota and the cars were powered by 1600 cc Toyota 4A-GE engines available in kit form from Toyota Racing Development. With the support of Toyota, the two US series were reunited into a single North American championship and have remained so to this date.

2006 Champ Car Atlantic Drivers pose for group photo at California Speedway

The same rules were adopted as Formula Pacific (not to be confused with the US Formula Atlantic Pacific Championship) and races were run in Australia and New Zealand, where Formula Pacific became the top class of racing. For a few years the prestigious Macau Grand Prix was run to Formula Pacific rules before becoming a Formula Three race. South Africa also adopted Formula Atlantic rules, but later mandated that the cars were fitted with Mazda Wankel engines.

In recognition of the global acceptance of the formula it was briefly renamed Formula Mondial in 1983, but this series failed to materialize.

Among Atlantic drivers in races through 1982 were Keke Rosberg, Gilles Villeneuve, Michael Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Howdy Holmes, Tom Gloy, Dave McMikllan, Kevin Cogan, Jacques Villeneuve Sr, Chris Kneifel and Roberto Moreno.

In 1983, Jon Norman, Gudrun and Rick Shea and Tim Fortner, formed West Coast Atlantic Racing - WCAR - and ran a series of professional races for Atlantic cars on the U.S. west coast, with Al Brizzard as Chief Steward. WCAR had originally sprung up with the FIA's "Formula Mondial" championship and when that folded prematurely, WCAR became Atlantic racing in the United States.

On the east coast, Vicki O'Connor decided to establish a similar series. Thus, East Coast Atlantic Racing - ECAR - was born. Simultaneously, Vicki established Pro-Motion Agency Ltd as the organizing and managing body to run the series and had SCCA as the sanctioning body.

The first ECAR race was at Summit Point Motorsports Park in West Virginia on 07 Jul 1985. Incidentally, this race and all subsequent Atlantic series races except those on ovals, used a series signature standing start following a group warm-up lap.

Both WCAR and ECAR ran races for a while until the two series were merged under Vicki's management in 1991.

Vicki brought to the management of the Atlantic series the many years of experience she'd accumulated while working for Carl Haas in his Lola, Hewland and other racing equipment import business, and more directly, her involvement in Carl's race team management in the CanAm and other series.

Vicki's biography as a member of the Road Racing Drivers Club reads in part "… the Toyota Atlantic Series which developed into the most successful and longest-running open-wheel driver development series in North America".

The Toyota Atlantic Series ran on road courses, ovals, street courses and airports in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The success of the series brought it the sponsorship and engine development of Toyota Motor Corporation in 1989 under its North American competition division, Toyota Racing Development, led by Les Unger.

Later races were sanctioned by CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) when CART bought Pro-Motion Agency Ltd. When Champ Car succeeded CART in 2004, the new owners also bought Pro-Motion Agency, and Toyota Atlantic continued under their sanctioning.[7] The series ended with the bankruptcy of Champ Car in 2007.

The series raised to prominence a great number of drivers including Michael Andretti, Jacques Vlleneuve, Scott Goodyear, Joey Hand, Buddy Rice, Sam Hornish, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Brian Till, Dan Wheldon, Alex Tagliani, Calvin Fish, Danica Patrick, Simon Pagenaud, A. J. Allmendinger, Graham Rahal and Katherine Legge.

The latest in a long line of television celebrities to enter this series—starting with Dick Smothers at the very first race in 1968[8]—was Frankie Muniz of the Fox Network comedy Malcolm in the Middle, making his debut in 2007. Sharing the dream of many American open wheel racers, Muniz stated his intention to use Champ Car Atlantics as a direct path to racing in the Champ Car World Series.[9]

Atlantic Championship races have previously been shown on multiple networks, including SPEED. For 2009, a new high-definition television package was announced on HDNet, which features live coverage of certain events and replays of others.[20]

Web video of events has also historically been available on the series website, and the series also has its own official YouTube channel under the username "AtlanticRacingSeries."

• Formula 3000
• Formula Three
  • FIA Formula 3
• Indy Lights
• Super Formula Lights

• Official Atlantic Championship Website (New 2012 revival)
• Atlantic Championship history on OldRacingCars.com