R.I.P. Formula Atlantic

Star Mazda & Atlantic

04 Jun 2011

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By: John Zimmermann

Time has finally caught up with Formula Atlantic. The most prolific training category in open-wheel racing history, Atlantic gave young drivers firm grounding in the fundamentals of their chosen profession for nearly four decades, but its run appears to be over. Series owner Ben Johnston has announced that “due to the downturn in the global economy and the subsequent shortage of funded drivers, the Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda will go on hiatus until global conditions improve.”

While Johnston maintains he and his staff will work to bring the series back, that hope seems at best a small one, for the history of such intervals of inactivity is not good. Although Atlantic always seemed to be something of an orphan it carried on anyway, but dwindling entry lists and the current economic crisis may have finally done it in.

Atlantic first appeared in North America in 1974, quickly gaining attention as a “Steppingstone Series” by producing Gilles Villeneuve, let alone the Bobby Rahals and Keke Rosbergs against whom he raced. They were joined by others, notably Price Cobb, both Jacques Villeneuves, Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vassar, Johnny O’Connell, Patrick Carpentier and many others.

It changed, of course, over the course of those 36 seasons kept alive by dedicated management and welcome support from first Toyota and presently Mazda – but despite devolving into a spec-car class toward the end the name still held magic for young drivers with their eyes on the bigger prize. Now they will have to look elsewhere.