Junior Open Wheel Talent

Atlantic Championship team U.S. RaceTronics will field both Simona De Silvestro and Frankie Muniz under the banner Team Stargate Worlds. The two have landed sponsorship from the publisher and developer of popular videogame Stargate Worlds, hence the team name.

Reportedly, both drivers will soon be featured in the upcoming Stargate Worlds MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game). You can view a trailer of Stargate Worlds here.

It's nice to see Frankie return to the Atlantic Championship. In the past, I've been kind of hard on him for his one-year stop in Formula BMW prior to making the huge jump... straight to the top-tier Atlantic Championship. I like the fact that he is sticking with his Atlantic efforts and not just moving on. Frankie didn't have the greatest year in 2008, his average finishing position was outside the top ten,... averaging a finishing spot of 11.82 at the season conclusion. That said, he did manage to improve his finishing position over his qualifying effort in 82% of his starts. I don't expect Muniz to be a standout in 2009, but this should be his best year to date.

On a similar note, it will be great to see Simona De Silvestro back in the Atlantic Championship in 2009. She was extremely impressive last year, becoming the second woman in history to win an Atlantic Championship event (Katherine Legge was the first). Simona not only won the opening race of the 2008 Championship, she also managed to finish inside the top-ten in 73% of her race starts. She finished inside the top-five on four occasions. Judging by her performance last year, one would expect she could put up a title fight in 2009.