It's just under seventeen days to go until the next season of RaceDepartment's most competitive Touring Car league kicks off!
The American Touring Car Championship (ATCC) started off in 2009, evolving from the popular Friday Night Races, a staple of the RD Racing Club since late 2008. The races from their outset have always used S2000 Touring Cars in RACE 07 and STCC: The Game, in some form or another – with short, fast-paced races at the best tracks and mandatory pit stops to spice up the action.
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The weekly events saw a gradual rise in field sizes, and the inevitable eventually happened: the Friday night races would morph into an RD-supported league, bringing together the fun-loving, casual (and sometimes clinically insane) racers who love their Touring Cars. Overseen by Keith Barrick, Jarrod Keen, Eric Kaczmarek and Rhys Gardiner, the change to a proper league format saw an exciting season of eight rounds at various American and Canadian tracks, with a European round at Mugello; Barrick took out the driver's title, followed closely by his friend and hard-playing rival Brandon Lawson.
The first season was generally considered a success; more than 30 different drivers took part during the season, racing their way across virtual North America and Italy – from Mosport to Watkins Glen, the action never stopped.
And now we are heading into season 2 – little more than two weeks left to go before our fast 2-litre machines are burning rubber for the first time at Manfeild in New Zealand!
Many organisational, planning and lineup changes have been slated for ATCC S2. The first of these is perhaps the most obvious one: the interest has been so great, that it has been elected to split the field up into two servers. Entries are standing at 55, and counting... new entries being submitted even as the season opener draws ever closer. To combat the logistics problems that two different servers bring to a unified league, race direction has brought in pre-qualifying to determine who should start the race in which server.
The second important thing to happen to ATCC is big: we have had a sponsor join our ranks. The American Touring Car Championship's title sponsor is TrackIR by NaturalPoint, a popular motion-tracking software used by flight simmers and many serious simracers. ATCC heartily welcomes NaturalPoint, and hopes for a long and prosperous future with the company.
The ATCC default skin, to be used by any independent drivers who haven't skinned a car for themselves. Marcel vd Aa's fine work can be seen here on a Chevrolet Lacetti. Thanks Marcel for the best default livery ever!
Another change of note is the calendar. The lineup of tracks to be raced on in S2 will have a decidedly more international flavour than S1, with the countries of Ireland, England, New Zealand and Brazil joining the fray. Only two out of the six rounds are based in the United States, and even then they are at least semi-fictional – Lime Rock Park is a real circuit, but the Mountain layout ATCC will be using was a stillborn proposal, and the KW Superspeedway is entirely fictional. The rest of the season's circuits – Curitiba, Manfeild, Cadwell and Mondello Park – are, on the other hand, flesh-and-blood real.
However, it's the drivers that make the American Touring Car Championship the American Touring Car Championship. While we have breakfast and lunchtime racers from Australia, such as Rhys Gardiner, the brothers Wood (Paul and Daniel) and Robert Isles, and the crazy all-nighter Europeans like Abdul Ahmed, Willie Watt and Linus Broström, more than half the field comprises of guys from Canada and the US of A. We have Pacific-Northwesterners like Bob Luneski, Michael Carver and Bill Kaiser; we have people from the southeast, such as Eric Nelson, Marty Pierce, and Jarrod Keen; we have mid-westerners Glenn Petersen and Sean Vohs; and who could forget Keith Barrick and Brandon Lawson, our 'Speedy Gonzalez' Canadians? There are countless more North Americans competing, which means that nearly every state or region of the continent has a driver racing in ATCC. And with Race2Play's best jumping in for a piece of the action, the field will be the most competitive of nearly all of RD's leagues.
Now it's time for me, the ATCC Media man, to send you guys a personal message...
All who competed in S1 will remember that I was responsible for writing up the event reports after each race, and will also know that I didn't always follow through with the reports. Well, that's going to change, along with many other things. In supplement to the race report and season bookending articles on the front page (which WILL be done on time), it is planned that there will be “News Extra” articles, released through the blogs system! A short summary of the articles you can expect is below:
The Cars of ATCC – Week by week, Rhys Gardiner details the history, technical specs, advantages and disadvantages of each car that is used in the league – your very own Car profile and reference log for future seasons!
The Tracks of ATCC – The Thursday before each race, Rhys will release a short article detailing the track to be raced on that week. Includes a short chronicle of the track's history and its essential information!
ATCC Driver Focus – Rhys will PM a select bunch of drivers from the Championship, and ask them a set of questions for them to answer. The “interviews” will then be posted every Wednesday and Sunday until the league is over!
As you can see, ATCC S2 is fired up and ready to go. All of us are eagerly anticipating the start of the season, and a championship that's sure to keep alight until the very end. We certainly hope that you enjoy racing in or following this high-octane season of simulated motorsport, and good luck in the pack! We wish you all the best for this season, and see you at Manfeild!
Thanks must go out to:
- The Race directors for making this all happen
- RaceDepartment for giving us the best place to race on the net and hosting our forum
- Eric Kaczmarek and Yves Larose for letting us use their servers
- NaturalPoint for the awesome TrackIR program and their sponsorship deal
- Our tired PCs which endure the labours of our hobby
- Ryan Callan for that awesome trailer you can see at the top of the page ^^
- And most importantly, the wives and girlfriends of ATCC – without their tolerance and understanding, it is likely that half the field wouldn't be here to race.
ATCC's almost back... Are you ready?
ATCC Trailer/Video preview by Ryan Callan
