Hello everyone and welcome to the latest newsletter from ATR.

We first of all apologise for the lack of updates recently. Every member (including the press organisers) here at ATR have been occupied recently and have been unable to release any official info about the races or from the team themselves. But now, we are more than making up for the lost time.

We start first of all with the news where the LMP1 team have offically announced a new sponsor to carry with the rest of the year in the 2012 ISCC. Clothing giant Hackett have decided to pull the plug on the sponsorship deal because of possible talks with another clothing company. Sure enough, after much disgussion, William Rast have decided to be the new sponsor of the Gulf ATR team, carrying further their deal from the TORA GT Championship.





The next round of the ISCC brings the TORA teams to Camino Viejo De Montserrat Extreme Circuit in the Spanish Mountains. This brings the ultimate test of drivers skill and bravery around this very tight, twisty and demanding circuit. It's also a real test of how the faster LMP category drivers are going to negotiate their way through the slower GT cars. Sadly for ATR, Ben Chalk has decided not to turn up for this round. This is mainly due to his general dislike of the circuit. There will be a two car team instead of Daniel and Zach Casto. The american driver is hoping to improve on his 11th place finish in the first round but expects the challenge to be far grater than the first round at the Nurburgring.

It's only now one month away til the start of the highly anticipated TORA Endurance series with the first race being the 12 hours of Sebring. After the disappointing failure last year, the team hasn't been put off from competing in this grueling endurance series. ATR have announced that team boss, Daniel Austins, has decided to join forces with Conner Johnson (Stonewall458) of Coca Cola Highcroft and Bli33ard. They shall enter the series in the Lola Aston Martin under the "Highcroft with ATR" name. Daniel is no doubt looking forward to this exciting new project and gives thanks to Conner for bringing forward the opportunity for both teams to be represented in the endurance series.

Finally in the news, after much time and consideration over the future of team boss Daniel, he has announced that season 8 of the TORA GT championship will be his final season in the series. The main reasons he has given is that the Le Mans Prototypes suit his driving style and he enjoys the ISCC more than the GT championship. However, this doesn't mean that ends ATR's involvement in the championship. Talks are underway to try and find a suitable replacement. Daniel has expressed at how much joy and sucess he has achieved in the series and thanks everyone of his team mates over the last 6 seasons of this championship. He hasn't ruled out a possible return in the future, but this season will defernately be his last.
Sticking with the GT's, ATR have finally signed a third driver. Bli33ard was welcomed with open arms at the teams factory in Devon as both Daniel and Matt gave his fellow englishman a site seeing tour around the factory. He commented later that he was "very impressed with the facilities in the teams factory and is looking forward to working with this great TORA racing team".


Now to the reviews. Very quick and brief this time around due to our lack of time we've had recently.
The first round of the ISCC produced mixed results for the team. ATR DAN was only less than two hundredths of a second behind Berty2D in the qualifying session and produced this crucial and very well executed overtake on lap 2 to produce a stunning win over the CQR driver.



iZ GunDaM was forced to retire during the race due to major mechanical issues. The young englishman was very distraught later in the garage and turned his anger on the car. Zach didn't have a smooth run, but finished in 11th place overall with a damaged vehicle. Team boss Daniel was no doubt pleased by the american's debut and thinks Zach will have a great season with the team.

In the GT's, Daniel and Matt turned up to Indianapolis with high hopes. Sure enough, after a dramatic event, Dan produced a sixth and a third in the two races whilst Matt finished 34th and 33rd respectively despite the lack of testing.
The team were feeling really down beat for Road Atlanta because the Aston Martin Virage wasn't suited to the track. Only Daniel turned up to represent the team at the second round. The teams low expectations were justified in qualifying where Dan could only qualify 10th on the grid. However, he produced a fifth and a seventh place finishes in both races after what he described as the drive of his life. The results were no doubt much better than either he or the team was expecting.

Many thanks for taking your time to read this newsletter.