Champ Car Atlantic Championship

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The Cooper Tires presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda is a formula racing series with races throughout North America. It is often colloquially referred to as Champ Car Atlantics, Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines), or just Atlantics, although the latter term risks confusion with the Sports Car Club of America's amateur Formula Atlantics division. The series is sanctioned by the Champ Car World Series, and most of its races are support races for the Champ Car World Series.

The Champ Car Atlantics series is often considered the top 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 $2 million (US dollar) 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.^[2] Simon Pagenaud became champion in 2006 and claimed the first such prize, and he promptly moved to Champ Car in 2007 to race for Team Australia.

Starting in 2006, the series has been run exclusively with Swift 016.a chassis powered by Mazda-Cosworth 2300cc DOHC inline-4 engines producing 300 bhp. The new formula has lowered the costs of running a full Atlantic season to around $500,000-$600,000. This reduction in costs, plus the addition of the aforementioned $2 million prize, had an immediate effect on increasing the number of competitors in the series (car count), which had dwindled over the previous few seasons. For example, the 2007 season featured 30 drivers.^[3]

Although the series had been run on Yokohama tires since 1991, the Japanese company elected to end its relationship with the series after the 2006 series, at which point it was replaced by Cooper Tire.

[edit] History

The history of Formula Atlantic begins with the SCCA Formula B class, created in 1965 for single-seat formula cars with engines not exceeding 1600cc in capacity. Prior to Formula Atlantic, professional Formula B races were held in the United States from 1965 to 1972, firstly 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 England in 1971 from the US Formula B rules, with 1600cc production-based twin-cam engines (initially Lotus-Ford twin-cams but then Cosworth BDA and BDD, however other engines like Alfa Romeo 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.

As a result, Formula Atlantic typically used chassis similar to Formula Two and Formula Three 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.

The first professional races run under Formula Atlantic rules were conducted in 1974 by the 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 their 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 Toyota's 1600cc 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.

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. Later the rules where changed to only allow Cosworth BD engines and the series was called Formula Mondial. 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 its peak of international popularity was some years past.

Former drivers in the series include legends such as Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Villeneuve, Bobby Rahal and Michael Andretti, and many current IRL and Champ Car drivers including Jimmy Vasser, A. J. Allmendinger, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andrew Ranger, Ronnie Bremer, Danica Patrick, Alex Tagliani, Patrick Carpentier, Buddy Rice, Dan Wheldon, Sam Hornish, Jr. and Roger Yasukawa.

The latest in a long line of television celebrities to enter this series - starting with Dick Smothers at the very first race in 1968^[4] - was Frankie Muniz of the Fox Network comedy "Malcolm in the Middle", making his debut in 2007. Sharing the dream of the majority of open wheel racers, Muniz stated his intention to use Champ Car Atlantics as a direct path to racing in the Champ Car World Series.^[5]

The 2007 line-up:Jonathan Bomarito, Ronnie Bremer, Adrian Carrio, Simona De Silvestro, John Edwards, Mike Forest, Natacha Gachnang, David Garza, Richard Heistand, Adrien Herberts, J.R. Hildebrand, James Hinchcliffe, Tonis Kasemets, Kevin Lacroix, Matt Lee, Ryan Lewis, Bret MacDonald, Raphael Matos, Frankie Muniz, Luis Mussi, Franck Perera, Giacomo Ricci, Alan Sciuto, Dan Selznick, Carl Skerlong, Justin Sofio, Junior Strous, Tom Sutherland, Brian Thienes, Robert Wickens.

[edit] Specifications

• Engine Displacement: 2.3L (140in³) DOHC I-4
• Gearbox: 5 Speed Sequential Manual Transmission (must have reverse)
• Weight: 643.1 kg (1,415 lbs.), with driver
• Power Output: 224 kw (300 hp)
• Fuel: 108 Octane Leaded Gasoline
• Fuel Delivery: Fuel injection
• Aspiration: Naturally aspirated
• Length: 449.8cm (177.1in)
• Width: 195.58cm (77in)
• Wheelbase: 277.6cm (109.3in)
• Steering: Manual, Rack and pinion

[edit] 2007 Champ Car Atlantic Championship Schedule

• April 8 Streets of Las Vegas - Las Vegas, Nevada
• April 15 Streets of Long Beach - Long Beach, California
• April 22 Reliant Park - Houston, Texas
• June 9 Portland International Raceway - Portland, Oregon
• June 10 Portland International Raceway - Portland, Oregon
• June 24 Burke Lakefront Airport - Cleveland, Ohio
• July 1 Circuit Mont-Tremblant - St. Jovite, Quebec, Canada
• July 8 Exhibition Place - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• July 21 City Centre Airport - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• July 22 City Centre Airport - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• July 29 Streets of San Jose - San Jose, California
• August 12 Road America - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin

[edit] Atlantic Series Champions

[edit] See also

2007 Champ Car Atlantic Season

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Champ Car Atlantic Website
• Formula Atlantic history on OldRacingCars.com
• 2008 Champ Car Atlantic Schedulefr:Champ Car Atlantic Championship

it:Champ Car Atlantic Championship nl:ChampCar Atlantic Championship sl:Formula Atlantic