ATLANTIC SERIES -
ROAD AMERICA
JONATHAN WINS AGAIN!ELKHART LAKE, Wis. Rookie Jonathan Summerton raced to his second Atlantic Championship of the year, taking the lead with two laps remaining and holding off Jonathan Bomarito by 1.084 seconds in the Road America weekend finale Sunday.

Bomarito won the weekend opener and moved into the series lead by three points over James Hinchcliffe with four races left this season.

Summerton won the second race of the doubleheader two weekends ago in Edmonton, Alberta, as well.

``It was a very hard run there at the end,'' said Summerton, who drove the No. 36 Newman Wachs Racing entry. ``I made a little mistake and I think Jonathan made a little mistake at the very end, and I think both of us did a very good job. We were pulling away from the rest of the field. I was quite happy to finish up there on the top spot.''

EDMONTON
RACE TWO - JONATHAN IN VICTORY LANE!!!

Summerton Defeats all Odds
 
Jonathan Summerton became the first rookie to win a race this season and also led every single lap from start to finish. "Newman Wachs team put a great car together for me," said Jonathan. "Don, my engineer, really deserved the win. Although we only got together a week before the season he has worked hard in bringing all the team together and at Edmonton it paid off."
 
We started the weekend  behind the eight ball as my plane arrived late on Wednesday evening so I missed the track walk and some of our usual track preview stuff.

On Thursday I went out to practice and soon felt comfortable with the track and car. Edmonton is a fairly fast track and doesn't have too many difficult corners. It's just the sight you struggle with as it is so flat. In first qualifying we were 2nd fastest and we decided not to change tires, so we lost several positions to those who changed to the 2nd new tires, but that is OK. For the second qualifying we were there and once we changed tires I knew I had a great car. Qualifying 3rd was pretty good even though we didn't get the optimum lap in.
 
Race 1: Jonathan had counted down the lights to the max and then 1 person moved causing Jonathan to react and jump the start but then he stopped again costing him more than he had gained. He ended up losing 2 spots at the start and had to fight his way back up the order to finish 6th. "I really enjoyed the race as I got to do plenty of practice in overtaking", said Jonathan.     
 
Race 2: At the start Jonathan catapulted to the lead before the first corner, then leading from start to finish. He brought the Newman Wachs Racing sponsored car home 2.222 seconds ahead of 2nd.

Afterwards Joanthan commented, "I knew I could gain the lead from a standing start as we had such a great traction control unit in the car..... ME! I just timed everything right with release of clutch to the amount of throttle. It was awesome to lead the race from start to finish."

"It feels awesome to win a race the fifth race in," Summerton added. "I'm real happy. We had a couple of races before where we should have been up there, but it didn't come our way. Now, we've put it together. The team did a great job. (Team owner) Eddie Wachs supports me very well. I'd like to just thank the team for doing such a great job all weekend, consistently running the car and keeping the car out there, and putting the car together all the time."

ATLANTIC SERIES - MONT TREMBLANT.
THE CHASE IS ON

Back in the seat after a month off Jonathan Summerton was on form from the first Practice on Friday. Jonathan was pushing hard and ended up as 4th fastest in the morning. In the afternoon the rain soon showered the track and Jonathan was fastest on the old tires with others on new ones.

In Qualifying on Saturday the track was damp at the start and then a shower caused problems. Jonathan was in the top three, but pitted to put new tires on when the rain came. Finally the rain stopped but as Jonathan was going out of the pits he had an electronic problem causing a missed opportunity to do the fastest lap. In that short stint in between the rain many cars went faster pushing Summerton back to P7.

Second qualifying was wet and Summerton was fastest from the beginning until the last laps. As the track dried the last person to cross the finish line was the fastest with Jonathan missing the extra lap by 4 seconds causing him to end 5th.

In the morning warm-up Jonathan was by far the fastest by more than 1 second with his hard efforts to show his speed.

At the start of the race the lights went out and Summerton got a great start gaining 2 places. For he next 20 plus laps he kept trying to pass Hinchcliffe who was determined not to let him through, many times moving off the racing line to block and prevent Summerton from passing and almost driving Jonathan off the road a few times. Soon Hinchcliffe had 3 and 4 cars all being held up behind him. At the restart after a yellow Summerton was all over Hinchcliffe for the full lap and in the hairpin took the inside of the corner from him. However, Hinchcliffe deliberately drove into Summerton whose corner it was, causing him to spin and costing him much needed points.

Afterwards the team protested the events of the race with the officials. Summerton commented, "I am very disappointed in the driving standards. The series needs to support and enforce their rules to promote higher quality driving and more exciting racing." The challenge goes on for the championship at the end of the month in Edmonton


ATLANTIC SERIES - 6TH AT LAGUNA SECA.
Jonathan had a strong weekend in the Atlantic Championship with Newman Wachs Racing: May 18 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Jonathan qualified in 9th position and drove to finish sixth - a great result at a circuit where it is notoriously difficult to overtake.

Jon continues to lead the Rookie of the Year point standings thanks to a sixth-place performance in the Monterey Festival of Speed. Summerton opened the year with a fourth-place result in Long Beach in the No. 36 Newman Wachs Racing machine, and he is now tied for second in the overall championship standings with teammate De Silvestro with two of 11 races in the books. He is now tied with teammate Simona De Silvestro in the championship.

Jonathan and the PaddockTalk phtography team took some great photos of the event which you can see here

The race was a part of the 2008 Monterey Festival of speed, which also features races from the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, the Formula BMW Americas and Historic IMSA. The next Atlantic Championship series race will be at Mont-Tremblant on June 29th.

Read about Newman Wachs Racing | Full 2008 Race Schedule

A1GP; BRANDS HATCH SPRINT RACE: JONATHAN AGAIN ON PODIUM
Brands Hatch Gallery
Jonathan's Brands Diary
JS took his winning momentum to the United Kingdom and raced to a creditable second place at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch on Sunday.

Jonathan admitted he made the mistake that cost him a chance to qualify on the front row for the A1GP Feature Race at Brands Hatch when he ran through the gravel at Sheene Curve.

"I had a little bit of an oversteer entering the curve," said Summerton, whose hand is still strapped up from a collision in the Chinese sprint race. "I just put the power down hoping it would collect itself up. "It must have just taken a bit too much kerb or something and I ended up running a little wider than expected. I just dropped a tyre, and that just pulled me off into the gravel and I ended up going through it.

"By that time I had already lost a second or more." Despite this, Summerton was happy with his car's pace and came within 0.002 seconds of taking his first ever pole position during qualifying for the sprint race. "It was a close one," he said. "The team came over the radio and told that me I was 0.002s off pole. What can you say to that? "It's kind of just a little bit of a sneeze in the car. There is not much you can do to improve that little bit.

Feature Race
The 20-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., was in eighth place when he made the Feature's second mandatory pit stop on the 35th lap. "We'd been stopped for four or five seconds and the engine suddenly shut off," Summerton said. "We don't know why."

Stalled for several seconds before being push started, Summerton rejoined in 16th place and moved up to 12th at the checkered flag. It left A1 Team USA outside the points and dropped it to 12th in the final standings.

"It was good to finish on the podium in the Sprint and we were happy for that, but it's a very big disappointment when it comes down to the car making the final decision on where you finish in the championship," Summerton said. "We started having gearbox problems, slipping gears, just before the second pit stop and it made it difficult to gain positions. Then, the engine quit and we lost several positions. What can you do? It was the car that caused us to lose our shot at 10th in the standings."

A1 Team USA ended with 56 points and would have needed to finish fifth to overtake India for 10th.

Fast in Practice
Jonathan Summerton was third fastest among 22 drivers Friday in practice.

"The setup on the ‘We the People' car is going in the right direction," Summerton said. "We have a good baseline setup and then you tune it to the track to get the most out of it. The car was good, but you can always improve it and that's what we'll be trying to do Saturday in practice and qualifying."

Summerton ran a lap of 1:15.243 around the 2.6-mile Grand Prix circuit. The 20-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., completed 27 laps in the one-hour session.

"Over the past few races, I've started to feel real comfortable in the car," Summerton said. "I've gotten in a routine again. We had run well, but our win in the Feature race at Shanghai has built up our confidence and made quite a bit of difference in me and the team."

Summerton joins the Atlantic Series - fourth in debut race.
In his debut race for Newman Wachs Atlantic prior to the Long Beach GP Jonathan had a great start. He held his grid position, and gained a place due to another driver losing a front wing. Despite several attemps and being all over the car in front he was unable to pass.

On lap 24 the leader made a mistake causing him to slow and immediately all the top 5 cars moved up a place putting Jonathan in 4th to push for a podium. Despite several more attempts to pass, it didn't happen. At the checkered Jonathan finished a very credible 4th place and TOP ROOKIE.

Afterwards Jonathan said. "I am very pleased with my result the team did an excellent job in getting me up to speed and we know that we are in the hunt for the championship."