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SUMMERTON TAKES FIFTH POLE AT ROAD ATLANTA

BRASELTON, Ga. (September 24, 2009) - American racer Jonathan Summerton took sole possession of the lead in one important statistical category in the 2009 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda today, taking his fifth pole position of the season in qualifying for Friday's race at Road Atlanta.

He's hoping to move to the top of two other important categories - namely race victories and the championship standings - when the checkered flag falls on tomorrow's penultimate round of the 12-race 2009 Atlantic Championship. Driving the No. 34 Nuclear Clean Air Energy/Entergy/NEI machine for Newman Wachs Racing, Summerton posted a best lap at 1:15.166 (121.651 mph) to take another $1,000 Cooper Tire Pole Award. Perhaps even more importantly, Summerton earned a bonus championship point, closing his gap to 11 points behind leader Simona De Silvestro, 160-149, and just three behind teammate John Edwards, who is second in the standings heading into tomorrow's race.

"I definitely want to win the race," Summerton said. "I think we have a very good shot. Consistently, we've been quickest all week, so I'm really happy with the car. We can make some improvements. The temperature made a bit of a difference today with the car. It wasn't spot on what I would like it to be. It was the same for everybody. Really, I'm happy with everything. Hopefully, tomorrow John and I can pull away. The best would be for somebody just to jump in front of Simona for the championship for Laguna."

Summerton will share the front row with Edwards, who came out on top in a late-session battle with De Silvestro for second on the starting grid. Edwards posted a best lap at 1:15.345 (121.362 mph) in the No. 36 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development/Nuclear Clean Air Energy/NEI/Entergy entry. It was his sixth front-row qualifying performance in 11 qualifying sessions this season.

"We were comfortably ahead of Simona for most of the session and then on the second set of tires, I had a few problems in the first six or seven laps with some oversteer with the new rubber," Edwards said. "Finally, they started coming in and I started getting the times down and then Simona put one in on the second to last lap. I was told that she was ahead of me, so I pushed even harder and got her by a couple hundredths at the end. We want pole and we want the win, but the key is to stay ahead of Simona and that's where we are."

De Silvestro wound up third on the grid with a lap at 1:15.357 (121.342 mph) in the No. 78 Stargate Worlds/Cheyenne Mountain Games/FireSky/Cardinal Technologies machine for Team Stargate Worlds. The performance was an improvement over yesterday's practice session, when she posted the fourth-quickest time of the day. De Silvestro looks to return to the podium tomorrow after missing the top-three for just the second time all season in the last race at Mosport last month due to a crash.

"I'm a little disappointed in this session, because the times are so close," said De Silvestro. "We were pushing hard, but we didn't quite feel the second set of tires as good as the first one. Maybe we lost a little bit of time there. The gap really shrunk between now and yesterday and the day before yesterday. It took me a little bit of time for me to get back into it after the crash in Mosport, and then we had kind of an engine problem, so I think that took us back because we were trying to figure gears out. I'm pretty happy. I know we have a really strong racecar, and I have to thank the whole team, because they put the car together really fast. It's really competitive right away, so I'm really proud of them and I think we're going to have a really good race tomorrow."

Jonathan Bomarito made it a Row 2 sweep for Team Stargate Worlds with the fourth-quickest lap of the session at 1:15.614 (120.930 mph) in the No. 77 Stargate Worlds/Cheyenne Mountain Games/FireSky/Cardinal Technologies entry. Friday's race will be Bomarito's first in Atlantic competition since the season opener at Sebring in March, and he is filling in for the injured Frankie Muniz.

Rookie of the Year points leader Frederic Vervisch completed the top five in the No. 17 Quartier/Isomo/Shinokki machine for Genoa Racing. The Belgian driver's best lap was a 1:15.645 (120.880 mph). The top eight cars were covered by less than one second.

ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP STARTING LINE-UP - Round 11

 1  34  Jonathan Summerton     Newman Wachs Racing
 2  36  John Edwards Newman    Wachs Racing
 3  78  Simona De Silvestro    Team Stargate Worlds
 4  77  Jonathan Bomarito      Team Stargate Worlds
 5  17  Frederic Vervisch      Genoa Racing
 6   1  Markus Niemela         Jensen MotorSport
 7  35  Tonis Kasemets         Polestar Motor Racing
 8  18  Greg Mansell           Genoa Racing
 9  19  James Winslow          Genoa Racing
10   7  Max Lefevre            Condor Motorsports

RACE RESULTS ROAD ATLANTA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009

POS CAR NAME                   TEAM                       LAPS
 1   34 Jonathan Summerton     Newman Wachs Racing         34
 2   78 Simona De Silvestro    Team Stargate Worlds        34
 3   36 John Edwards Running   Newman Wachs Racing         34
 4   77 Jonathan Bomarito      Team Stargate Worlds        34
 5    1 Markus Niemela         Jensen MotorSport           34
 6   17 Frederic Vervisch      Genoa Racing                34
 7   19 James Winslow          Genoa Racing                34
 8    7 Max Lefevre            Condor Motorsports          34
 9   35 Tonis Kasemets         Polestar Motor Racing       29
10   18 Greg Mansell           Genoa Racing                17

SUMMERTON KEEPS CHAMPIONSHIP HOPES ALIVE WITH ROAD ATLANTA WIN

For the second year in a row, the battle for the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda title will go down to the final race of the season, and Jonathan Summerton is once again one of three drivers in contention for the championship.

Summerton leapfrogged his Newman Wachs Racing teammate, John Edwards for second in the standings and closed to within seven points, 176-169, of leader Simona De Silvestro following his fourth victory of the season on Friday afternoon at Road Atlanta. The 21 year old American Formula 1 hopeful started from the pole and led every lap in the No. 34 Nuclear Clean Air Energy/Entergy/NEI machine, beating De Silvestro to the stripe by 4.208 seconds.

It was Summerton's third victory in his last four Atlantic starts and was his eighth podium result in 11 races this season. Summerton is currently tied with De Silvestro for the series lead in victories and will head for the season finale in Monterey, Calif. carrying the momentum of four consecutive podium results.

"Coming from (last month's race at) Mosport and a dominating weekend there, we were fastest in all the practices and qualifying and we won the race there, it was the same thing here," Summerton said. "We were very, very quick in all the practices and qualified on pole and won the race. I think we're in for a good run at Laguna Seca. I hope John will be there also with us up there strong. Basically, I can only do what I can do and focus on winning races. The rest is out there. We're going for a championship and I know it can be done. The way the car has been the last three or four races, I can't complain. I know we're going to have a strong car in Laguna. Hopefully, we can do it in dominating fashion again there."

After seeing her streak of podium finishes snapped at eight consecutive races due to a crash at Mosport, De Silvestro returned to the podium for the ninth time in 11 races with her runner-up result in the No. 78 Stargate Worlds/Maakoa/Cheyenne Mountain Games/FireSky/Cardinal Technologies entry for Team Stargate Worlds. De Silvestro started third and got the drop on Edwards on the race's standing start, and she managed to keep Edwards at bay throughout the race to score valuable second place points.

"We had a really good podium streak before the big crash in Mosport," De Silvestro said. "It was a little bit unfortunate that I had that. I'm really happy to be back here on the podium. It's really important for me for the championship to be back up front. In the race, I knew I had to get a really good start, so I really focused on that and it happened, so I was really happy. Just from then on, Summerton had a little bit faster car than we had. A really big thanks to my whole team for putting the car together. It was really important to get back on the podium for the points."

Edwards settled for third in the No. 36 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development/Nuclear Clean Air Energy/NEI/Entergy ride for Newman Wachs Racing, scoring his eighth podium result of the season. With 166 points, the 18 year old American is now 10 points behind De Silvestro in the championship race and he also now trails teammate Summerton by three points. It is important to point out, however, that the driver who was third in the championship standings following the penultimate round - Markus Niemela - wound up taking the series title when all was said and done in the season finale, so Edwards is very much alive in the title chase.

"I got a bad start, and that's really where the race was lost," Edwards said. "I had a couple of chances where I was drafting her, but I never really got close enough until about two laps from the end. That was the lap that Tonis (Kasemets) decided to spin or something in the chicane, so his car was stalled and there was a yellow flag. I went to pop on Simona, I popped out and had a run, but unfortunately the yellow flag didn't allow me to complete the pass. That was unfortunate, but the reality is that I gave the position to her at the start and that ruined my race."

Making his first Atlantic start since the Sebring season opener - where he didn't complete a lap due to an opening-lap incident - Jonathan Bomarito scored a fourth-place result in the No. 77 Stargate Worlds/Maakoa/Cheyenne Mountain Games/FireSky/Cardinal Technologies entry for Team Stargate Worlds. Bomarito will also be in the cockpit of the No. 77 machine when the series moves to his hometown in two weeks, as he will once again fill in for the injured Frankie Muniz.

Niemela completed the top five in the No. 1 Jensen MotorSport machine. It was the Finnish racer's fourth straight top-five performance and his sixth top five of the season. Rookie James Winslow, who sat out the last race at Mosport, returned to Atlantic competition at Road Atlanta and earned his third $2,000 "Hard Charger" bonus after improving from ninth at the start to seventh at the finish.
courtesy: atlantic-championship.com / imsaracing.net