Junior Open Wheel Talent

Jonathan Summerton won his second Atlantic Championship race of 2009 in Round 8 at Mid-Ohio earlier today. Summerton, who shattered the course record in qualifying (1:12.970), started from pole position and led every lap of the race.

The win will make a rather large impact in the championship points standings. Current championship leader, Simona De Silvestro finished in second place just 2.000 seconds behind Summerton at the line. John Edwards, who is currently second in the championship, had an unfortunate incident early in the race that caused him to face his first DNF of the season. Spanish rookie Borja Garcia, who was remarkably quick heading into the race, finished third in the final tally.

The hard charger of the event was James Winslow. Winslow improved three positions during the 38-lap event to finish 6th after starting 9th. Today's result marks Winslow's best finish to date in the 2009 Atlantic Championship season.

Honorable mention should go to Max Lefevre (10th-7th) and Michael Mallinen (12th-9th) who each improved three positions.

(photo: atlantic-championship.com)
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Atlantic Championship
Round 8- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Complete Results > >

After being away from the computer for a few days due to a mini-vacation, it's time to catch up on all the racing news and results. Rather than put all the news into individual posts, which are already dated, I decided to just put everything in one spot via a 'Linkage' post.

Skip Barber
Skip Barber National standout Connor De Phillippi won Round 7 by going from 3rd to 1st in the final lap.
Round 7: Complete Results

Skip Barber Karting Scholarship winner Court Vernon won his first Skip Barber National race over the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
Round 8: Complete Results

Formula BMW-Americas
Gabby Chaves won the first race of the weekend at Lime Rock Park in dominant fashion. The win moves the Colombian driver back into the points lead.
Round 8: Complete Results

Australian driver James Kovacic celebrated his 16th birthday in style by claiming his first Formula BMW victory in Race 2 at LRP. Not only did Kovacic win, he became the first driver to win from a spot other than pole position, so far this season. He started the race in 5th. Honorable mention should go to Alex Ellis who led most of the race only to see the victory slip away in the closing laps.
Round 9: Complete Results

F2000 Championship
Matthew Inge ran a solid race to take his second win of the season in the F2000 Championship, while racing at Summit Point Motorsports Park. Championship leader Chris Miller finished the race in second place. Alegra Motorsports driver Fabio Orslon continues to develop as he finished the race in 3rd.
Race 1: Complete Results

Tim Minor found his way to the top spot of the podium in the second race of the weekend at his home track (SPMP). Championship leader Chris Miller continued his renowned podium streak by finishing 2nd. Ben Searcy found his way to the podium after being DQ'd from a fifth place finish in Race 1---due to missing the minimum weight requirement by a mere 3lbs.
Race 2: Complete Results

You can read the F2000 Championship weekend notebook here>>.

Atlantic Championship
Simona De Silvestro made history this weekend by becoming the winningest female driver in the 36-year history of the Atlantic Championship. Simona claimed her fourth career Atlantic victory at Lime Rock Park. The previous record was held by Katherine Legge, who had 3 career Atlantic victories. John Edwards had a great run to finish 2nd after starting 5th. His performance earned him the hard charger award. Borja Garcia put in another solid performance to finish 3rd in Round 5. The result marked his second podium of the season.
Round 5- Complete Results

Formula 3 Euro Series
Jules Bianchi dominated the competition at Zandvoort this weekend for Rounds 7 & 8 of the 2009 championship. The 19-year-old driver has won four races this season and leads the championship by 17 points.

The Hard Charger of Round 7 was Atte Mustonen who improved 11 positions-- 20th to 9th.
Round 7- Zandvoort Complete Results

The Hard Charger of Round 8 was Stefano Coletti who improved 12 positions-- 24th to 12th.
Round 8- Zandvoort Complete Results

World Series by Renault
Bertrand Baguette dominated the weekend by winning both races at Le Mans. Baguette leads the championship by 19 points over Marcos Martinez (2nd) and James Walker (3rd).

The Hard Charger of Round 10 was Dani Clos who improved 10 positions--20th to 10th.
Round 10: Le Mans Complete Results

The Hard Charger of Round 11 was Edoardo Mortara, who improved 15 positions--21st to 6th. Honorable mention should go to Miguel Molina who improved 8 positions--10th to 2nd.
Round 11: Le Mans Complete Results

After struggling to find financial support and subsequently losing his ride at Newman-Wachs Racing to American Jonathan Summerton, ...Markus Niemela is scheduled to complete the remainder of the 2009 season with Jensen Motorsport.

Niemela, who won the 2008 Atlantic Championship, has been ill-funded this season, but managed to work out a contract with Eric Jensen that will see him back in the car this weekend for the Lime Rock Park race. Jensen Motorsport intends to field a car for the Finnish driver for the remainder of the 2009 season.

After crashing in the opening race at Sebring, Markus has finished three consecutive events inside the top-ten.

Matt Lee will return to Atlantic Championship competition this weekend with Conquest Racing. The 19-year-old New York resident signed a deal with the team to compete at this weekend's Lime Rock Park event. Lee drove for Jensen Motorsport in the season opener at Sebring, where he finished ninth.

Jonathan Summerton has had a busy summer driving in both the Indy Lights series and the Atlantic Championship. Both drives were on a race-by-race basis as the 21-year-old Florida resident struggled to find the necessary funding. It was announced today that he will be able to put all his focus on the Atlantic Championship for the remainder of 2009.

After a few weeks of rumors regarding the departure of Markus Niemela from Newman-Wachs Racing.... it was announced today that Niemela is out with Jonathan Summerton taking over the duties for the remainder of 2009. Summerton will partner fellow American John Edwards under the team tent.

Summerton spent the first part of the 2009 Atlantic Championship with Genoa Racing. With Summerton's departure from Genoa, the team will have an open seat heading into the Lime Rock Park race. I was planning on starting a rumor about who will fill the seat, but decided against it, stay tuned for future announcements.

As far as Markus Niemela's situation goes, I'm still waiting on some information from a few inside sources. I will post an update, when the information becomes available.

**update** According to inside sources, Markus Niemela's departure from NWR is funding related... as speculated. He will join Jensen Motorsport for the remainder of the 2009 season.

The Atlantic Championship was the headline class of the weekend at the Mazda Formula-X event at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The series completed Round 3 & 4 of the 12-race championship over the weekend. The double-header weekend was broadcast live on HDNet...which was great to see (especially with a junior formula series as the headline event).

The weekend produced some great results--unfortunately there wasn't a lot of passing---hence the title above. The ground effects on these cars produce so much downforce that it makes passing tough, especially on a circuit like Thunderbolt Raceway where there aren't a lot of good spots for overtaking.

The hard charger of Round 3 was John Edwards who finished 5th after starting back in 8th. He improved the most positions of any Atlantic competitor on the weekend--a mere 3. The first race of the weekend (Round 3) was won by American Jonathan Summerton. It was a nice win that was likely overdue for the 21-year-old race driver, as he has qualified on the front row of every Atlantics race (to date) in 2009. The win marked his first Atlantics victory in 2009 and his 3rd career victory in the series. It was also the first Atlantics victory for Genoa since the 1994 season. Simona De Silvestro continued to showcase her speed and finished 2nd. Borja Garcia finished the race in 3rd, which marked his best finish of the year. The 26-year-old Spaniard has been impressive all season and only seems to be getting quicker.

The hard charger of Round 4 was James Winslow who improved a mere 1 position. Winslow started the race in 10th and finished 9th. Despite the lack of an impressive # next to the hard charger title... Winslow did have a great race with Frankie Muniz throughout the 38-lap event. Richard Zober also improved one spot, finishing 12th after starting 13th. The big story of the day was Simona De Silvestro. The Swiss race driver was quick all weekend and claimed Sunday's win by 0.910 seconds over Jonathan Summerton. With the win, Simona becomes the second female to lead the Atlantic Championship (Danica Patrick also led the championship for a short time in 2004). The final result also marked Simona's 3rd career Atlantic Championship win--which ties Katherine Legge's record for the most career Atlantic Championship victories by a female driver. Frederic Vervisch ran another impressive race to finish 3rd. The 22-year-old race driver has finished on the podium in all but one Atlantic race this season.

After a pre-race penalty, for qualifying interference, Frederic Vervisch was docked two starting spots. After the penalty was assessed, he started the race in fifth---which means--- Vervisch was technically the hard charger of Round 4 for improving two spots. (see comment section below).
(photo: Atlantic Championship)

Atlantic Championship
New Jersey Motorsports Park
Round 3 Results
Round 4 Results

Simona De Silvestro claimed her second career Atlantic Championship victory on Sunday afternoon in Utah. The 20-year-old of Thun, Switzerland completed a near-perfect weekend in Tooele, Utah by winning Round 2 of the Atlantic Championship at Miller Motorsports Park. The win marked her second career Atlantic victory as she won the opening round of 2008 at Long Beach. The only other female driver to win more Atlantic Championship races is Katherine Legge (DTM)---who has 3 wins to her name.

Her teammate at Team Stargate Worlds, Frankie Muniz, did a fine job as well by earning the Co-Hard Charger of the Day title by improving 3 positions. Frankie started the race in 7th and finished 4th--which marks a career best finish for the former actor. Frankie shares the hard charger title with Max Lefevre, who also improved three positions (10th-7th).

John Edwards showcased his speed, yet again, by finishing 2nd in his Newman Wachs Racing entry. Atlantic rookie Frederic Vervisch took the final spot on the podium by finishing 3rd, 13.357 seconds back from De Silvestro.

Atlantic Championship
Full Results: Round 2- Miller Motorsports Park

I'd like to think that my rant earlier today, regarding the status of the Atlantic Championship website, had something to do with the new site going live-- but in reality, I'm probably not that important.

Kudos to Nate Siebens and the Atlantic crew for getting the new site up. You can view it here.

Primetime Race Group of the ALMS has decided to enter the Atlantic Championship after purchasing the Brooks Associates race cars. It's a shame to see Brooks Associates selling their equipment after winning the championship last season, but it's nice to have a quality group like PRG step-up with plans to field a team. Stay tuned for more information.

I can think of one driver looking for a ride....

It appears the world economy is beginning to affect the racing industry more and more everyday. Earlier today, it was announced that Mathiasen Motorsports has withdrawn from the Atlantic Championship for the remainder of the season due to economic woes. This is truly unfortunate news and I hope to see them back in the near future.

I'm sure the opening round incident between Jonathan Bomarito and Markus Niemela had a major impact on the team's decision to withdraw for the season.

In case you missed it, further reading on how the world economy is affecting racing.

I'm looking at some new options for race coverage in 2009. Obviously there are plenty of sources out there offering race results, most of which have better resources available than I do, and most of the series have their own live timing available as well. Your typical Internet race report provides you with the winner (rightly so), but you don't always get the details of who had a great weekend. So, in an effort to separate the coverage at Junior Open Wheel Talent from that of several other racing websites and to help promote drivers showing improvement, I've decided to try a weekly "hard charger" section featuring the driver/s who advanced the most positions over the race weekend.

We will kick off this segment with the "hard-charger" or most improved drivers from Sebring. I sifted through these results fairly quickly, so feel free to correct me if I missed something, but here are the numbers I came up with....

Most Improved Driver/s: (Positions Improved in Parenthesis)

Skip Barber National
Race 1: Mike Vincec (5), Sage Karam (5)
--Race Winner: Connor De Phillippi
Race 2: Felipe Polehtto (8), Mike Vincec (8)
-- Race Winner: Connor De Phillippi

Formula BMW
Race 1: Joao Victor Horto (4) -- Race Winner: Gabriel Chaves
Race 2: Gianmarco Raimondo (5) -- Race Winner: Gabriel Chaves

Star Mazda
Conor Daly (13) **Hard Charger of the Week**
-- Race Winner: Adam Christodoulou

Atlantic Championship
James Winslow (5) -- Race Winner: John Edwards

In a last minute deal, Jonathan Summerton has signed with Genoa Racing and will partner Frederic Vervisch. One would assume that the signing of Summerton came together rather quickly after Alexander Rossi decided to (atleast temporarily) pursue other opportunities.

The signing for Genoa looks to be a promising one as Summerton is currently sitting P1 in the first of two qualifying sessions at Sebring International Raceway. Summerton was followed closely by his teammate, Vervisch, who will be sitting off-pole alongside Jonathan for the start of the Friday afternoon race.

It's nice to see Summerton back in the Atlantic Championship, even if it's only for a one-off, his presence substantially deepens the talent pool of the series. The 20-year-old race driver finished the 2008 championship in 3rd place, with 2 wins and 5 podiums.
(photo: www.jonathansummerton.com)

Atlantic Championship
After a successful test at Palm Beach, Frédéric Vervisch has signed with Genoa Racing for the Sebring International Raceway season opener. Vervisch was actually looking for a World Series by Renault ride, but decided the Atlantic Championship was a better bang for his buck. At this time, he will only run the opening round at Sebring. In 2008, the 22-year-old race driver won both the German and the Asian Formula 3 Championships. As stated earlier, he looked very impressive in his first test with Genoa at PBIR.

British standout James Winslow has signed with Conquest Racing to run the full 2009 Atlantic Championship. He will partner Harald Schlegelmilch at Sebring. Winslow won the Australian Formula 3 Championship last season with 5 wins and 9 podiums. His average finish in the championship was 3.56, including one DNF. That said, the competition he will face this season looks to be much stiffer.

Star Mazda
Former Team USA Scholarship winner Joe D'Agostino has signed with Andersen Racing to contest the opening race at Sebring International Raceway in the Star Mazda Championship. As part of the Team USA Scholarship in 2004, Joe spent several years in the European ranks, competing in British Formula Ford, Formula Renault, as well as running in the historic Formula Ford Festival. He finished fourth in the 2004 Formula Ford Festival and 3rd in the 2005 British Formula Ford Championship. It will be nice to see Joe back in a car, even if it is only for one race. I know he is still working on putting together the funding for a full season, so if he puts up some decent results in Sebring, ...I wouldn't be surprised to see him back for a few more races in 2009.

Formula 3 Euro Series
Christian Vietoris has re-signed with Mucke Motorsport to run the 2009 Formula 3 Euro Series. Vietoris has shown flashes of speed in his past endeavors which include winning an A1GP race for Team Germany as well as winning the Formula BMW ADAC Championship in 2006. Last season, in the Formula 3 Euro Series, he had some real solid results in his first ten races. At the midpoint of the season, his luck seemed to turn around as he logged 4 DNF's in his final 10 races. He was also DQ'd during the final weekend at Hockenheim. If the 19-year-old is able to put together a consistent season, he should do quite well in the overall championship.

The Atlantic Championship drivers had their first official test over the last two-days at Palm Beach International Raceway. The combined results from both days are listed below. I have also added a few notes on the test at the bottom of this post...

1. Borja Garcia-- Condor Motorsports - 1:07.286
2. John Edwards -- Newman-Wachs - 1:07.556
3. Markus Niemela -- Newman-Wachs - 1:07.881
4. Frankie Muniz -- Team Stargate Worlds - 1:07.919
5. Harald Schlegelmilch -- Conquest Racing - 1:08.116
6. Frederic Vervisch-- Genoa Racing - 1:08.155
7. Jonathan Bomarito -- Mathiasen Motorsports - 1:08.268
8. Matt Lee -- Jensen Motorsports - 1:08.322
9. Simona De Silvestro -- Team Stargate Worlds - 1:08.344
10. Alexander Rossi-- Genoa Racing - 1:08.366
11. Max Lafevre -- Condor Motorsports - 1:08.600
12. Michael Nacol -- Jensen Motorsports - 1:11.124

A few notes on the test...

• 2009 appears to be the "Year of Rookies" when looking at the entry lists across the various junior formula series here in North America. The first official Atlantic Championship test saw 6 series rookies take to the track...making up 50% of the drivers involved.

• Borja Garcia appears to be the class of the field and the early favorite for a Sebring victory. He signed with Condor Motorsports earlier today. Did I already mention that he is a series rookie? Garcia was absolutely dominant, setting the pace both days. After doing a little research, here is what the internet turns up on him... Garcia is a 26-year-old race driver hailing from Valencia, Spain. His early career began in the Spanish karting ranks, where he won his first championship at the age of nine. He continued his developement in the karting ranks until 1999, when he first began to sample car racing. He moved into cars full-time in 2000, at the age of 17, winning the Spanish Formula Toyota 1300 Championship. In 2001, he ran 15 races in the World Series by Nissan with limited success. He returned to his winning ways in 2002, placing third in both the Spanish F3 and the Formula Nissan 2000 Championships. He won eight races that year, and it has been termed his break-out year. He continued his development in the Spanish F3 ranks for the next two seasons (2003-2004), claiming the overall championship in 2004 with 9 wins, 10. podiums. In 2005, he ran 22 races in the GP2 Championship and also did some testing for the Toyota Formula One team. In 2006, he took a small step back (if you would consider it that?)...by committing to run a full season in the World Series by Renault with RC Motorsport. He finished 2nd overall in the season championship, winning once and claiming 7 podiums. He returned to GP2 in 2007 by signing with Durango, a season that didn't showcase his talents, where he ran 21 races but finished the season in 10th place. Last year, 2008, he returned to the World Series by Renault running five races with RC Motorsport. He also ran 12 Superleague Formula Races for Panoz, finishing 10th in the overall series. Bring us up to date.... Just looking at his resume, it would appear that he is a very quick driver who has had trouble finding the necessary funding to make the jump to the next level. The Atlantic Championship prize fund for 2009 is obviously attracting quite a few drivers who are in the same position. This looks to be an extremely exciting year. Watch for a very strong showing from Borja and Condor Motorsports.

• Harold Schlegelmilch appears to be the "Most Improved Driver" of the test, based strictly on lap-times.
  

• In late February, I wrote that this should be Frankie Muniz's best year to date, so far he is proving me right. His times in the first test are very impressive.

• John Edwards looks to be finding his groove after returning to the Atlantic Championship.

• I'm surprised to only see 12 entries in the first official test, but insider's are forecasting about 17-18 cars in the field for Sebring. Let's hope for more.
  

Latvian driver Harald Schlegelmilch has signed with Conquest Racing for a one-off race in the Atlantic Championship season-opener. The opening race will be run March 20th at Sebring International Raceway.

Harald will also be testing with Conquest this week at the first official series test, which will be held at Palm Beach International Raceway.

Last season, the 21-year-old driver competed in the International Formula Master series where he scored 1 win and 2 podiums enroute to a solid 4th place finish in the overall championship.

Matt Lee will be testing with Jensen Motorsport this week in the team's #22 Atlantic Championship car at Palm Beach International Raceway. The 19-year-old tested with the team last month at the same venue and according to the team, he performed quite well.

Lee developed his craft in the karting ranks, prior to making the move to Formula BMW in 2005. He spent two years in Formula BMW, finishing 2nd in the 2006 Formula BMW-Americas series. In 2007, he moved into the Atlantic Championship where he ran 12 fairly uneventful races with Conquest Racing. In 2008, he joined Guthrie Racing for two Indy Lights races at Watkins Glen. He finished 8th in his second race, after starting 16th on the grid. Without the necessary funding to continue, he decided to focus on his karting efforts in order to stay sharp while pursuing the financial support for a run in 2009.
(photo: http://www.mattleemotorsports.com)

Finnish driver Markus Niemela has signed with Newman Wachs to run the 2009 Atlantic Championship. According to Newman Wach's press release, he will be the second driver in history to return to the Atlantic Championship full-time after winning the previous year's title. Lee Bentham won the Atlantic Championship in 1998 and returned to the series in 1999, unfortunately that was his final year of professional competition, he finished sixth overall.

I am impressed to see Markus return to the championship, amid all the controversy between him and Brooks Associates Racing. There was some speculation that he would join Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the Indy Lights series for 2009. He also completed a GP2 test in Europe and considered a move to the DTM world. I would assume that the Atlantic Championship offered him the best opportunity in prize funds for 2009, something that he apparently missed out on in 2008. Regardless, it is great to see him return for another year of competition...adding to the depth of this year's championship.

Niemela completed his 2008 Atlantic Championship campaign with 2 wins and 5 podiums. He finished inside the top-ten in 91% of his 2008 race starts. He was remarkably consistent, finishing inside the top-five in 54.5% of his races, failing to finish only once. Watch for the combo of John Michael Edwards and Markus Niemela to be a potent mix in the 2009 championship.
(photo: www.markusniemela.com)

American stand-out Jonathan Bomarito has re-signed with Mathiasen Motorsports for the 2009 Atlantic Championship.

Jonathan Bomarito enters the 2009 Atlantic Championship season as an early favorite, ...the 27-year-old entered the 2008 season finale with an eight point lead over 2nd place, after 10 laps, he retired from the final race due to a mechanical failure. This wasn't the first time Bomarito had retired from a race due to a mechanical issue in 2008,... in fact it wasn't the second time either. The Monterey, California resident proved to be one of the fastest drivers last year,... with the worst luck. He finished inside the top-5 in 75% of the races he completed last year. Despite the bad luck, he ended the season 2nd in the overall title hunt with 3 wins, 4 podiums, and 3 pole positions.

If Mathiasen and Bomarito can get rid of their gremlins in 2009,... watch out! I have a feeling that both the driver and team have some unfinished business in the series.
(photo courtesy of: Candace Elliott/Edmonton Journal)

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.