Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the latest news from ATR.

It has been a while since we've last published a newsletter so we will summarise all the happenings of the last couple of months, both on and off the track.

First of all, we kick off with Round 3 of the TORA ISCC European leg at Mugello. After many testing sessions to try and improve the cars set-up, the team were optimistic of producing a good result, although victory wasn't on their minds as the level of competition was intensifying with each passing round. Sure enough, team leader ATR DAN could only qualify third; eight tenths off the pole time set by CQR Magictap. BuckeyeBullet20 and iZ GunDaM qualified eight and ninth respectively.
By the end of the race, Zach (BuckeyeBullet20) produced a stunning drive through the field to finish third overall after many dramas for the other rivals including both his team mates. ATR DAN was caught up in an incident with Duncan (SelectiveRogue) and Duke of Bruno very early in the race and suffered damage. Instead of retiring the car, he decided to limp till the end. A decision no doubt that could be crucial to his championship aspirations. However, due to other retirements, he managed to finish in fourth place. Ben wasn't so fortunate. He had to retire the Lola Aston with body work and engine damage from another seperate incident.

Round four of the ISCC visited the teams home circuit at Silverstone. After yet more extensive testing work, hopes were even higher for this event and a home win seemed possible. Pole position once again belonged to CQR Magictap but ATR DAN was only two tenths behind him in third place. Ben qualified seventh whilst Zach stared 9th.
Once racing commenced, DAN inherited the lead early on after Magictap made a mistake trying to lap a GT car. From then on, he wasn't to lose the lead again for the rest of the race after intense pressure from Magictap and later from Duncan. Traffic was against the Gulf ATR driver but he dug deep and carried on to win the teams home event by less than one second. After his podium finish at Mugello, Zach drove consistently well and finished in fifth overall with Ben once again suffering problems but made the finish in 6th place.

The fifth round saw the teams visit the new Hockenheim circuit in Germany. This particular track isn't really a favourite amongst the racing community but were no doubt relishing another epic installement of this great championship.
Before the meeting began, there were talks behind the scenes that the team wasn't happy with Bens results. No matter how they tried to resolve his difficulties, the team had no choice but to release Ben from his contract early which made Silverstone his last drive with ATR.
The team wasn't so optimistic heading to Hockenheim knowing that the track wouldn't suit the Lola Aston Martin. Sure enough, DAN could only qualify in fourth place whilst Zach could only manage 9th on the grid. The race wasn't that exciting compared to previous rounds, but DAN once again produced a solid and consistant drive to finish in second place, further extending his lead in the drivers championship to 37 points from Simon Biggs (CMGraphix). Zach once again proved his class and consistency by re-producing the same result as Silverstone with another fine fifth place.

Yesterday was the sixth round of the series at the picturesque setting of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. This was going to be the hardest race of the year for all involved, due to the high speed nature of the circuit with average speeds in excess of 130mph for the LMP1 field so there wasn't any room to make any mistakes.
The biggest news to come from the team was the arrival of a new driver in the shape of TORA veteran Conner Johnson (Stonewall458). Hopes were high as per usual, but even more so after a couple of practice sessions to try and find the right balance on car set-up. ATR DAN commented that the Lola Aston "is in the best shape that it's ever been with the perfect set-up". And his comments were justified when he planted the car on pole position, six tenths of a second ahead of title rival Simon. Conner delivered a solid result for his first qualifying session for ATR by starting fifth on the grid whist Zach suffered with early damage and had to settle for 7th.
This demanding event proved to be ATR's finest with DAN taking a commanding victory! His fourth win out of six events ahead of new team mate Conner after a near perfect race by the two drivers. Zach suffered the same fate as in qualifying but managed to limp the car home in sixth in LMP1.

After the perfect result for the team, they've jumped ahead of Audi Sport (formerly BMW Motorsport) in the teams championship by nine points heading into the final two rounds at Catalunya and Le Mans. In the drivers championship, mainly due to other competitors mis-fortunes at Bernese Alps, ATR DAN has a massive 53 point lead over Simon Biggs with Louis Satterlee (Audisport Louis) a further 9 points adrift. Despite this lead, DAN isn't taking anything for granted because of the double points that will be awarded at the 2.4 hours of le mans. Zach currently sits in 7th with 179 points and hopes to maintain his top 8 position in the standings.

In the final piece of news, ATR have decided to ditch plans of running the AMR-One for the American leg of the ISCC. After many hours of extensive testing, it was felt that the AMR-One wasn't up to the job of being really competitive compared to their current Lola Aston Martin. Louis Satterlee, who will be joining the team after the European leg, has strongly agreed by the lack of potential from the new car.
Many rumours are flying about of who will be joining the ATR squad. Two teams are being planned with the Lola Aston but with different identities. Possible candidates include Zach Casto (BuckeyeBullet20), Chad Wilson (Franchitti Fan), Conner Johnson (Stonewall458) and Chris Ford (Bli33ard).

Many thanks for reading and we hope to bring you more news real soon.