Atlantic Championship in Tremblant: What a Difference a Year Makes!
By Jamie Longmuir
Photos courtesy Jamie Longmuir
ST. JOVITE, Quebec (June 30, 2008) -- Last year, during the Canada Day long weekend in Mont Tremblant, Quebec we were treated to a world class event at Le Circuit - The Champ Car World Series was in town, and it brought 42,000 people with them! This year, on the same weekend, only a few hundred die-hard race fans turned out for what should have been Le Circuit's premier annual event.

What happened? The Champ Car World Series ceased operations, but that's not all... With its premier event cancelled, Le Circuit moved its second biggest weekend - The Sommet des Legendes to the Canada Day weekend. At the same time, Champ Car's former feeder series - The Atlantic Championship, came calling and agreed to combine with the Sommet des Legendes in what should have been Le Circuit's revised premier event. Unfortunately, the Legends cars - historic Grand Prix and sports cars - would pull out of the weekend, leaving the Atlantic Championship as the sole attraction. With the ticket prices unadjusted for the smaller schedule and no promotion, it's a miracle there were more than friends and family watching the race. The sad part - only a ten minute drive away, the resort village of Mont Tremblant bustled with thousands of visitors from every corner of the globe with not a single sign, pamphlet or promotion of any kind to indicate there was a professional racing event down the road!

With only a handful of on-track sessions, a lack of spectators wasn't the only problem. Few corner workers want to attend an event with excessively long breaks between sessions. With other motorsports events competing for corner workers, only a handful turned out for the weekend. This meant most stations only had a single corner work - or even no corner work during the Friday and Saturday practice sessions. The lack of track workers became apparent Saturday morning, when the first session was delayed for almost 30 minutes while communications problems with the corner workers were resolved.

Despite marshalling issues during practice, the Atlantic Championship competitors were in very good hands this weekend thanks to the generous donation of Atlantic Championship volunteer Polly Gallimore. Gallimore, who volunteers with the Atlantic communications department, agreed to fund the former Champ Car safety team for the Mont Tremblant weekend, while Mazda's North American operations provided two fully equipped CX-9 safety vehicles to assist the team.

As the race approached, the few fans that made the trip to Le Circuit were free to explore the unusually quiet paddock area, mingling with drivers and crew members. This had the feel of a pure motorsports event, like every club racing event around the world, where the drivers and teams are there solely for their love of motorsports and any fan willing to work would be a welcome addition on any team. Though the event did have some security people (parking attendants?), they were not of the officious type you often find at major events. Rather, they were local race fans that greeted fans with a friendly smile, wishing them a pleasant afternoon. Finally, unlike last year, when cool mornings made "Champ Car" hoodies the hottest item at the circuit, this year there was not a single souvenir stand to be seen! Granted, you wouldn't normally see a souvenir stand at a club racing event, but both Le Circuit and The Atlantic Championship are world renowned with equally long histories - no doubt a few fans would have liked to have a memento from one or both. It also seems like a lost marketing opportunity for both the track and the series.

The race began at the scheduled 1:00 pm local time, with Junior Strous in the #6 Shell/HTP/Muermans Condor Motorsports car on pole. After some discussion among Atlantic officials, it was decided that the cars would negotiate the tight second turn chicane on the first lap. Despite a clean start last year, there was always concern about having 20 cars pile into such a tight, bumpy chicane. Though likely not a driver-favourite, the chicane provides a spectacular view for the fans as the cars literally bounce - airborne over the curbs when pushing hard.

The start was clean, with Strous maintaining the lead for the entire race. As the mid-field pack jostled for position, fans would be left guessing what was happening, as the track did not have a public address system. In the closing minutes of the race, the #11 of Douglas Soares made contact with the #70 of Daniel Morad in turn five, forcing the race to finish under caution. The yellow-chequered finish felt anti-climactic, and left several spectators asking for more. The "more" came in the form of the "Tremblant Challenge" - eight or so local sports cars likely assembled at the last minute to provide some on track action during the long breaks between Atlantic sessions.

One extremely positive note sounded on the weekend - this was the first race the Atlantic Championship raced under IMSA sanctioning. The IMSA involvement could clearly be seen with logos on all of the cars as well as crew member credentials. Besides new branding, many will be watching to see the direction the series takes this season and beyond. This weekend clearly demonstrated that the Atlantic Championship needs to be partnered with other professional series for a successful event. It is hoped that the new partnership will lead to more weekends combining the various IMSA Championships – for example, the American Le Mans Series, the IMSA Challenge by Michelin, IMSA Lites, Star Mazda series, Formula BMW and now the Atlantic Championship.

Besides bigger events, this weekend displayed that IMSA’s organisational expertise cannot come quickly enough for the Atlantic Championship. They are needed to assist both the series and circuits in ensuring that events like this weekend’s are a rarity and not the norm. As much fun as it is for fans to attend a club racing event, the Atlantic Championship is not a club racing series – it needs to be in front of a crowd, and that certainly wasn’t the case this weekend.

The next race for the Atlantics Championship will be a double-header at the end of July in Edmonton, Alberta, which was also a World Class Champ Car event last year. We will be watching with interest to see how IMSA takes up the challenge of keeping the magic alive.