FRP Road Atlanta
It is less than a week out to the first Formula Race Promotions race of the 2019 season, the 14th edition of the Series. The track is Michelin Tire Road Atlanta, one of the great tracks in North America. Close to 50 cars in four classes will compete Thursday, Friday and Saturday in what should be a great racing, and hopefully a couple of track records. Formula Race Promotions has always promoted vertical integration of high quality gentleman drivers with young up and coming career minded professionals. 2019 is no different.
For the Atlantic Championship Series we find KHill Motorsport’s Dario Cangialosi moving up from his 2018 F1600 championship to take a run at FRP’s top class. Also from the KHill camp will be Flinn Lazier, 2018 SCCA FE National Champion and third generation racer, son of 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy and grandson of Bob, noted CART and Indy 500 driver. Up against him will be Polestar’s SCCA National Champion and FRP Champion Keith Grant and Spencer Brockman, with Lee Alexander from the Swan Motorsports camp. In this season’s Atlantic Master’s category we find Swan’s Bob Corliss and Rich Zober, KHill’s Dudley Fleck and Kirk Kinsfater joined by newcomers Bill Gillespie and Robert A. Wright. While they run for the master’s title, they of course can and will challenge for the overall win.
F1600 looks to start 18 entries packed with talent. KHill brings 2018 SCCA FF National Champion, 2017 Team USA Scholarship, and 2017 season FRP podium finish winner Jonathan Kotyk back to the paddock. Also from KHill will be rookie Bryce Aron. Team Pelfrey will again host a strong contingent with rookies Josh Green, Aryton Ori along with multi-year competitor Dexter Czuba, who just won a SCCA Super Tour race at VIR this weekend. Rice Race Prep is bringing a pair of drivers, rookie Burton Kyle August and well known IMSA Prototype winner Misha Goikberg. Other contenders we should watch for are Christian Lall Dass and Raceworks’ entry Ryan Bjerke. In the Master’s class returning drivers Mike Scanlan, Dave Petzko, Scott Rubenzer and Cliff Johnson will face Bob Reid, who is moving from F2000 and Polestar’s Tim Dunn, a FRP F2000 race winner who took some time off after much success in SCCA FF. Joining this group for Road Atlanta will be a trio of Canadian drivers prepped by Britain West; Matt Gidman, Gord Ross and Zachary Vanier.
In F2000 the talent runs deep with 2018 FRP Champion Steve Jenks up against SCCA FB National Champion and FRP Champion Brandon Dixon, FRP two time Champion Tim Minor, and 7 time SCCA National Champion Dave Weitzenhof. Entered as well is Megan Gilkes, a third generation Canadian racer who just beat out 125 other women world-wide to win a spot in the prestigious new all-female European Formula 3 W Series Championship. They will be joined by FRP veteran and SCCA Super Tour winner Peter Gonzales and FRP race winner Davis Durett. We will also see Misha Goikberg do double duty this weekend in the Rice Race Prep F2000 Citation that piloted Steve Bamford to the the 2016 FRP Championship.
Joining FRP for the first time is the North American Formula 1000 Championship. NorthAmF1000 cars are 1000cc superbike engines in the rear of 800 pound formula cars which scream at 14,000 RPM. Not only are the cars amazing to hear on track, many familiar names in the racing paddock are entered in the opening round of 2019, including 2017 SCCA National Champion – Alex Mayer, “godfather of F1000” – Jeremy Hill, highly accomplished racer Glenn Cooper, as well as series regulars Tim Pierce, Jose Gerardo, Doug Hertz, Steve Hamilton, Charles Livingston, Reilly Harris, and Michael Crowe. For more information about the North American Formula 1000 Championship please visit www.NorthAmF1000.com
Practice begins April 18th with races on April 19th and 20th. Follow all the action on Race Monitor.
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