Thanks to those that.....

[Michael Rand]

....actually believed in us and supported the first out of the box Atlantic Championship Series event at Road Atlanta this weekend.
While the quantity may have been small the quality was top shelf and the entrants as a group showed what is to come.
Trite as it may be, from small acorns grow great oaks.
The Atlantic group is a great group of competitors and NJMP the end of June is much anticipated by everyone.
Joe Blacker took a huge hit and aside from being sore for a few days hopefully will be fine in no time, David and Keith [and Dad Richard] Grant, John Burke, Rich Zober, Jason Byers, Bruce Hamilton, Dwight Rider in his first run in his newly acquired Ralt, Ted Zorbas, hell, even Finelli and Puderbach with the Pro FM [more are welcome anytime....] , a quality group, thanks for the belief and support.
See you and your pals in a month plus in south Jersey !
Wait for a 20 car Atlantic field to take the green, it'll be better than great !

[Dennis Valet]

One thing that was mentioned at the town hall meeting which bears repeating - it is special to be able to take your Formula Atlantic out onto the track and only have to race against atlantic cars. No 50 car wings and things run group where you are dodging FVs, FCs and other random crap.

Seeing (ok, hearing!) this 10 car field take off at the green flag was brilliant, and I imagine the competitors felt the same way about it as the spectators. I felt that the town hall meeting really exemplified the desire of all those involved in this class to restore it to a popular and awe inspiring formula. Everyone involved with the F1600 and F2000 championship series knows that the people who run it (Rand, Purple Frog, Bob Wright, et al) know how to listen to the competitors in order to make sure that the series is fun, successful, and fair. There's no doubt in my mind that they can take the current FA GCR rules and turn them into a set of rules that will make everyone wish the SCCA would follow suit.

10 cars was amazing, let's get it to 20+ for New Jersey!

[Purple Frog]

We had two days of bright sun and no clouds, the weather that photographers hate. Even so Dennis and TJ got great shots.

A few more pictures:

[Purple Frog]

Our own Hazelnut jumped into the deep end of the pool. I think he had fun.

[Purple Frog]

Fifteen months ago Ted Zorbas was one of my students at the RRR double driving school. Now he has ownership of Swift FA, and raced in his first pro races. He is also smart enough to bring his own pretty umbrella girl. (nice hat Joan!)

[Purple Frog]

Before the race day is over, we have found it almost impossible to get a picture of Gibby smiling.

Here's one of Gib with his usual "game face".

[Robins Ken]

Gib showed me more in about (8) minutes a few years back (he had no clue who I was, just a poor putz with a pile of bent wishbones to fix and a VD upright buried up my ***)

A lifetime moment. Thanks Gib. KR.

[Shooter]

Thanks to the Teams and Mechanics that brought their cars to the Pro Atlantic event at Road Atlanta. looking forward to NJ

JG

[Purple Frog]

Shooter is Apexspeed's newest member, but not new to racing. For many years he was the chief of tech for the past pro atlantic series, and now he is Chief of Tech for the Atlantic Championship Series. He brings a lot of credibility to our start-up.

[Purple Frog]

Joe Blacker had a big off at T12 saturday. From where we were standing it looked like something broke in the right rear of the car as he approached the apex. If you look on the ACS web site you will see a picture Dennis took of the skid marks, and the left front wheel was just skipping occasionally on the pavement. Luckily he grazed the end of the tire wall before hitting hard on the left front against the concrete. Joe climbed out pretty quickly, and was checked out at the med center. He may be a wee bit sore today. It was a big hit. It did point out the safety of a tub car and hans devices.

Also, it pointed out to those of us watching, why wheel thethers may be a good idea. In this picture you can see Ted avoiding the bouncing ball. The bouncing rear wheel was in an area blind to those approaching the apex of the turn. The reaction of approaching drivers was to slow down and turn inside away from Blacker's scene... of course that is just where the wheel assembly came to rest.

[KevinFirlein]

Joe said parts were falling off the car all weekend. After friday he found the big bolt that goes thru the trunion and into the bell housing on one side was MIA and of course all the upper motor mount bolts were falling out loose as well. they suspect an a-arm was cracked and flexing as after the missing bolts were fixed the car was still basically undriveable. They looked at the arms after the crash and think they saw witness marks of a long lived cracked but its always hard to tell after mass distruction.

the oil leak he suffered earlier in the event was from an oversized oil filter that was actually laying against the exhaust header and finally burned thru but no dmage was done as he caught the smoke trail and pulled in.

Unfortunately Joe had a rough weekend in a car that was borrowed.

[DGrant]

I would like to thank Jim Griffith with Polestar and Paul Hasselgren for a perfect car all weekend.

I would also like to thank Mike Rand and the gang for a great Race weekend.

For everyone considering joining the Atlantic Championships series in New Jersey in June, I would highly recommend it for a few reasons...

1. A professional staff that wants you to be there and makes everything seamless!
2. A tremendous amount of track time, WITHOUT OTHER CLASSES!! It greatly reduces one's chances of running off the track dodging slower classes. The savings from one off track incident alone covers the additional entry cost for the entire year versus a national race.
3. A track schedule that occurs as printed and doesn't change.
4. Being able to race without lapping other classes after 4 or 5 laps.
5. A tech inspector with a lot of knowledge about the cars.
6. A pace lap speed that allows you to heat up tires and use more than just first gear.
7. Race control and a flag stand that QUICKLY gets the track back Green.

Thanks Again for a well run first event,
David Grant

[jim morgan]

Frog,

Get Gibby a FF,FC or FA with your stepson in it and I know we can make him smile.
As David G. said for those that don't know this is the best $ spent for open wheel racing anywhere in the east. One event here will get you more track time,better competition and 50% less bs than 2 or 3 nationals.

[Keith Grant]

For those who didn't attend the first race at Road Atlanta, you really missed out. I would encourage everyone to sign up for New Jersey. We need to make sure the Atlantic Championship Series is a success this year so they will continue it in the future. The whole weekend was run professionally. There were no surprises and the staff was extremely helpful throughout the weekend. They made all of the Atlantic drivers feel welcome. As an example, some of you may know that I had to borrow John Burke's spare car (Conner's car) for the race on Saturday. We had two hours between qualifying and the race to get the car ready for me to drive. The series staff came to our tent to inspect the car. They made sure my car number and transponder number were changed with Timing and Scoring and they even offered to hold the race for a couple of minutes if I needed time to make the grid. I also need to thank John for loaning me his car for the race. Without his voluntering Conner's car, I never would have made the race Saturday. This is an example of the attitude that was felt within the paddock amongst the drivers. Everyone was willing to help each other in any way.


The best part of the weekend was that we were on the track by ourselves. You can learn a lot when you are not contstantly dodging slower cars. I hope everyone signs up for New Jersey. New Jersey will be an 1100 mile drive for us, but it will be well worth it. We look forward to running with others that we don't see in the southeast, central or midwest divisions.