Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.

Last Sunday saw the last round of the Ferrari 458 Challenge as well as the first round of the GT24 held at the Hockenheimring in Germany. It was an exellent night all round for the group as Daniel (ATR DAN) was crowned the 458 Challenge champion with Mark (Rollin InAn STi) finishing as the runner up in the series. This was a title that has no doubt been hugely satisfying to the co-founder and driver of ATR.
In the main event of the evening, Daniel continued his exellent form the 458's by finishing in third place after an exellent battle with F4H Koenigsegg for the last 10 laps. ATR co-founder Matt finished one place behind his team mate Connor in 19th and 20th, making it a good start all round for the team. Connor in particular producing a great drive back after a confusion on the pitstops.
We managed to grab a few words from all three drivers asking them to describe the race from there point of view:


Matt:

"On the whole I'm pleased with the race, we had the pace to run high in the midfield. Ran well with WWR Aero in the opening stages before I outbraked myself and had to avoid contact with him. That knocked us back down the field and really we just coupldn't pull that back.
The car is really good, we're just lacking top speed and that's cost us today. Took my Qualy lap a bit more cautiously than I could have but I was determined to get a clean lap in.
On the whole, despite the lack of running, I'm really pleased with how we've started the season. Sebring suites me more and there's only one straight to really bother us so we ought to be in better shape."

Connor:

"I had a really good race. Unfortunately I pitted before the pit-lane was open. So a couple of laps later I had to pit again and went down to 10th in lobby B out of 11. Throughout the rest of the race I picked people off one by one and got up to 6th place and was battling EZT Uncabunca back and forth on the final lap for 5th. I made a dive down the inside of the penultimate corner and nearly got the place, but I made a small bit of contact with EZT and he took 5th place while I took 6th."

Daniel:

"What can I say? I don't think the race weekend could have gone any better from my perspective. To wrap up the 458 Challenge in such style, it's certainly more than made up for disappointment that was this years Touring Car Championship. I'm just shocked as well because I gave it my all as per usual but I wasn't expecting to win all the races in the series.
Because I've carried his name on my car throughout the championship, I would like to dedicate my title to Dan Wheldon who was loved by everyone in the motorsport community and will no doubt be sorely missed. That was for you mate.
I would also like to congratulate my fellow ATR pal Mark for finishing in second place in the series.

As for the GT24, I really didn't expect to finish on the podium because I felt the Aston Martin Virage wasn't going to be that competitive. But after feeling so high after the sucess of the 458's, I was determined to carry that form through and produce a good performance. I had to overdrive the car in order to extract the maximum from myself as well as the car.
I would like to give a big shout out and a big thanks to F4H Koenigsegg after our tremendous tustle for the last 10 laps after the pitstops. I thoroughly enjoyed that!
After the race, I've given a rough idea of where we need to improve the car in time for Sebring. We are obviously lacking in horsepower compared to the Mercedes SLS for example. Also, I suffered with understeer for most of the race so thats another area to rectify.
But in all, I thought it was a good team performance in the first race and I hope we can continue our form for the next round at Sebring".


PHOTOS WILL BE UPLOADED TO THE GALLERY AS SOON AS WE CAN.