Atlantics 2005 (spoilers)

[StickShift]

The first round at Long Beach was just completed.

Katherine Legge won her first race in the series. The first female to win a Formula Atlantics race. (afaik?)

Based on what I can tell from the live timing commentary... Legge had a collision with Fernando Rees while battling for P3, causing Rees to eventually retire. Legge later battled with Rocky Moran Jr for P2, she passed him going into turn 1, but was repassed by him a few laps later. Moran and Legge both caught the leader Antoine Bessette, and both passed him in one lap for P1 and P2. Legge, Moran, and Bessette were in a pack until Moran pulled off with some mechanical failure with three laps to go. Legge then held off Bessette, and took the win.

Fin  Str   -- Fastest Lap --   
Pos  Pos  Car#  Driver  Team  Laps  Time  Mph  Kph  Lag  Status 
 
1  7  12  Katherine Legge  Polestar Racing Group  32  47:04.618  80.345  129.299  0.000  In Pit 
2  1  3  Antoine Bessette  Polestar Racing Group  32  47:05.125  80.331  129.276  0.506  In Pit 
3  19  11  Charles Zwolsman  Condor Motorsports  32  47:06.151  80.301  129.229  1.532  Active 
4  4  16  Chris Dyson  Thetford/Norcold Dyson Racing  32  47:36.488  79.449  127.857  31.869  Active 
5  11  15  Justin Sofio  Binder Racing  32  48:15.226  78.386  126.146  1:10.607  Active  
6  12  9  Dan Cobb  Dan Cobb Racing/Team Tonis  31  47:35.501  76.992  123.904  1 Lap  Active 
7  9  49  Dan Selznick  The Room Store  31  47:37.959  76.926  123.797  1 Lap  Active 
8  8  24  Kyle Kelley  McAtee Motorsports  31  47:53.290  76.516  123.137  1 Lap  Active 
9  15  71  Mark Ishikawa  Ishikawa Racing  31  48:14.563  75.953  122.232  1 Lap  Active 
10  5  5  Rocky Moran Jr.  P-1 Racing   30  44:28.379  79.734  128.316  2.433  Mechanical 
11  14  18  Bob Siska  RJS Motorsport  30  47:36.449  74.484  119.867  2 Laps  Active 
12  13  48  Lee Atkins  Atkins Racing  30  48:01.056  73.848  118.843  2 Laps  Active 
13  16  32  Roby Feazell  US RaceTronics  30  48:13.053  73.542  118.351  2 Laps  Active 
14  18  19  Brian McAtee  McAtee Motorsports  30  48:35.352  72.979  117.445  2 Laps  Active 
15  6  6  Tonis Kasemets  Dan Cobb Racing/Team Tonis  15  22:33.215  78.613  126.512  13.824  Mechanical 
16  3  10  Fernando Rees  Brooks Associates Racing  11  14:53.674  87.294  140.482  9.286  Contact 
17  10  23  Tom Nastasi  Blackforest Motorsports Group  0  0.000  0.000  0.000  9 Laps  DNS 
18  17  96  Ben Johnston  Blackforest Motorsports Group  0  0.000  0.000  0.000  9 Laps  DNS 
19  2  8  Andreas Wirth   Brooks Associates Racing  0  0.011  0.000  0.000  9 Laps  Contact

Well, Katherine did in one race what Danica couldn't do in two seasons. Even though I'm sure most would agree Danica faced stiffer competition. Beating Bessette and Moran doesn't stack up to beating Allmendinger, Fogarty, Dalziel, or Valiante.

[Sato san]

Top Class from Katherine !....she has been on it all weekend , ive been watching the live timings of practice and qualifying and she really deserves this .

Excellent !

[Raven]

Wow. I thought she had ran out of money and packed up racing a couple of years ago. Great stuff.

[jjspierx]

She did, till Kalkhoven met her, he's sponsoring her completely. Actually she hadn't retired completely. She did partial seasons in American Formula Renault the last year or two.

[Andrewm]

I seem to remember her getting a telling off as an instructor in Formula Woman when she let a pupil lose an RX8 into the armco.

[Kicking-back]

Well done to Katherine, but I suspect her winning the race says a lot about the quality of the other drivers in it, I'm afraid.

[Snrub]

So what do the rest of you guys think about the quality of the Atlantics field? Did SpeedTV broadcast the race? I didn't catch it.

[Mosport67]

I think the race is on this weekend coming up on Speed.

[jjspierx]

It will be broadcast next Saturday. All of the Toyo Atlantic races will be broadcast with a week tape delay.

http://www.toyotaatlantic.com/Event/....asp?Year=2005

I haven't seen the race yet. Katherine is obviously a very talented driver, and I won't say she wouldn't have been able to win a race last year or the year before, but the field is noticeably shallow this year in talent compared to recent years.

[Rob29]

Re;the result list in post1.could someone explain the meaning of the term 'in pit' for the first 2 home?

[jjspierx]

That list was probably made right after the race ended. Katherine and Antoine had probably just pulled into the pits while the drivers behind them were still on their cool down lap.

[StickShift]

Just a reminder, the Atlantics Long Beach GP is coming up on Speed in twenty minutes (2pm est/11am pst).

[Snrub]

Good race!

Legge seemed a bit green at the start (which she was intitled to be), but really seemed to get into her own once the race progressed.

Bessette seemed a bit green too. He was smoking everyone at the start, but then wasn't able to continue that pace. The commentators suggested pressure, I dunno.

We didn't get to see a lot of Zwolsman, but he looks darn good.

Moran was unlucky not to win, a shame about his engine. I loved all the dicing between him and Legge. Long term I think Legge may have been a little faster, but I don't think there was enough time left in the race for her to have gotten by legitimately.

The C2 class is an interesting concept, which I didn't fully understand and still don't. They run 75lbs more, but have a bit more power and are allowed a wider range of damper options. I'm not sure what qualifies C2 as valid for amature competition? Why is Moran in a C2 car, costs? He appears to have better sponsorship than the others. Why not regulate everyone to run a C2 car to reduce costs for the series? The only other difference that they made note of was that the C2 cars had analog gauges instead of the fancy telemetry.

[SALEEN S7R]

Great to see Katherine doing so well, sure the grid might not be what it was in 2004 but there are a few very talented drivers in that series at the moment not least Chris Dyson. Okay hes no superstar but he is a very talented driver with a good track record, especially in the ALMS racing for Dyson. To beat drivers of his calibre certainly says something about Katherine's abilites IMO. Lets hope she can carry this form throughout the rest of the season.