Opinions - Toyota Atlantic

[muggle not]

I would appreciate some opinions on the Toyota Atlantic Series. What do you think of it , etc. Do you watch the series? How do you compare it against ALMS, Trans Am, Grand am, etc.

[theracegypsy]

Having seen 6 rounds this year I rate it as good close competitive racing which thrills the paying punter and gives the die-hard fan lots to talk about.
I don't see how you can compare it with Sports?GT series however, the rational is completely different between what is essentially a single seater (open-wheeler for our US friends) sprint race and enduro for Trans-Am or long distance racing for ALMS & Grand-Am.

[gomick]

think its a great CART junior series - hopefully more drivers can graduate to CART ...... congrats to jon fogarty on winning the championship this year

[Liz]

Crazed but pesonable and friendly drivers having a great time and very competitive racing, never a clue what will happen in the first corner but lots of fun to watch. I like the Barber Dodge series a little bit better, but this is a good show too. Well done Fogarty and I hope you and Valiente get drives in CART next year.

[muggle not]

Thank you all for your opinions. Does anyone have a "ballpark number" on how much it would cost to race a full season in Toyota Atlantics. I am talking with a potential sponsor about several different "road racing" series. At this point it is not important as to whether it is GT, openwheel, etc.

[greg.n]

You won't get much change out of $800000US. Chassis, engines,wheels, tyres, spares, rebuilds and testing. Thats around $75000 per race but you own a car at the end of the series(if you don't trash it!) It isn't cheap. But if you compare it with the $6.5 million for a champ car effort it ain't bad.

[greg.n]

On the other hand a season of Australian F3 costs about $120000-150000Aust- for a season of sixteen races over eight meetings. The races are about 30-40 miles long. Thats less than $75000US for a whole season and the guys at the front end of the grid would be as good as the guys at the front end of an Atlantic grid. There is an American in this years series. (Geoff Brewer)

[Jay]

err...about $650,000 US per year per car is what the Toyota Atlantic people say. That's probably a base figure, so you could expect to have a slightly higher budget.

I love this series, and think it is the most enjoyable open-wheel series to watch of all levels, and categories. The cars are similar in nature to champcars but have only 250 HP and run shorter races without pitstops. The races are extremely close with passing being relatively easy compared to other open-wheel formulae.

[Lee Janotta]

Just as something to watch? Eh, it's pretty good.

As a development series? Well, it's not great, but there seems to a problem with creating a series with good competition and low costs while also giving the young drivers good exposure, as the exposure tends to attract money which raises the playing field.

[Tailwind]

At the Denver race I sat next to a woman who was the mother of one of the engineers working for the "Performance Development & Racing" team. She was very interesting and explained a lot about the series that I hadn't known. The team has no sponser and so they of course run on a shoe-string budget. They are not a front running team, but have been about mid-pack most of the season. Hopefully with the Indy Lights series being closed and many of their teams joining the Toyota/Atlantic series, more attention will be paid to this series bringing in sponsors. The series has a good product and promising rising stars.

[Jay]

I should also point out that with Indy Lites demise the car count of Atlantics is sky rocketting.

32 this year, 37 or so expected next year, and potential for over 40 in the near future. Although I'm not sure if the facilities at most tracks can take 40 cars, so they might have to impose a limit.

And if you're looking for the North American talent pool of young open-wheel racers, this is it. The only problem is finding seats for all of the talented guys that come out of it...