2024 Atlantic Championship

2024 Atlantic Championship Series season
Season
Races	12
Start date	March 23
End date	August 18
Awards
016 Class Champion Open Class Champion	Matthew Butson Nathan Byrd

The 2024 Atlantic Championship Series season was the eleventh season of the revived Atlantic Championship. The series was organized by Formula Race Promotions and sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing.

The season was held over six weekends from March to August of 2024. K-Hill Motorsports driver Matthew Butson won the 016 Class Championship during the penultimate weekend of the season, while Arrive Drive Motorsport's Nathan Byrd won the Open Class Championship after going unbeaten throughout the first eight races of the season.

Drivers

Drivers competed in two classes, either in the 016 Class or in the Open Class. All teams were American-registered.

Team	No.	Driver	Car	Rounds
016 Class entries
K-Hill Motorsports	00	Bill Munholland	2006 Swift 016a	3–4
	21	Clay DellaCava	2006 Swift Formula Atlantic 016	1
	24	Matthew Butson	2006 Swift 016 Mazda	All
	63	Jim Booth	2006 Swift 016 Mazda	1
	74	Dudley Fleck	2006 Swift 016 Mazda	1–2, 4
	77	John McAleer	2006 Swift 016	1–4
	666	Tõnis Kasemets	2006 Swift 016a	4
Polestar	29	David Grant	2006 Swift 016	4–5
	40	Keith Grant	2006 Swift 016 Mazda	3–5
Alliance Racing	66	Richard Zober	2006 Swift 016a Mazda	3–5
Open Class entries
Puma	5	Robert Wright	2001 Swift 014/FA	3–4
K-Hill Motorsports	06	Bruce Hamilton	2001 Swift 014 MZR	6
Coopsport	7	Glenn Cooper	1998 Nova-Diemen F1000	1
Arrive Drive Motorsport	07	Austin Holtgraewe	2012 JDR F1000	1–2, 4
	33	Charles Livingston	2013 JDR 012	4, 6
	39	Nathan Byrd	2012 JDR F1000	1–4
	81	Tim Pierce	2018 JDR F1000	1–2, 6
	94	Joel Haas	2000 Piper F1000	1
	99	Paulie Gatto	2015 JDR F1000	1–4, 6
Slahor Racing	9	Jason Slahor	2008 Citation F1000	3, 6
Home Tech Consultants	41	Robert Albani	2004 Mazda PFM	3, 5
		Tyler O'Connor		5
Hamilton Motorsports	93	Steve Hamilton	2020 JDR F1000	2, 4, 6
Source:

Race calendar

The schedule of series organizer Formula Race Promotions was announced on October 12, 2023. The race weekends where races of the Atlantic Championship will be held were concretized in early January of 2024. The series added a round at New Jersey Motorsports Park, bringing the total up to six events.

Round		Circuit	Date	Support bill	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	Road Atlanta, Braselton	March 23	SVRA Trans-Am Series	Road Atlanta Mid-Ohio Pittsburgh Road America New Jersey Summit Point
	R2		March 24
2	R1	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington	April 27	FRP race weekend SVRA
	R2		April 28
3	R1	Pittsburgh International Race Complex, Wampum	June 8	SVRA Trans-Am Series
	R2		June 9
4	R1	Road America, Elkhart Lake	June 29	International GT Trans-Am Series
	R2		June 30
5	R1	New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville	July 27	Formula Regional Americas Championship Formula 4 United States Championship
	R2		July 28
6	R1	Summit Point Motorsports Park, Summit Point	August 17	FRP race weekend SVRA
	R2		August 18

Race results

Round		Circuit	016 Class			Open Class
			Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver
1	R1	Road Atlanta	Dudley Fleck	Matthew Butson	Dudley Fleck	Glenn Cooper	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd
	R2			Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson		Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd
2	R1	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Dudley Fleck	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd
	R2		Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd
3	R1	Pittsburgh International Race Complex	Keith Grant	Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd
	R2		Keith Grant	Keith Grant	Keith Grant	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd	Nathan Byrd
4	R1	Road America	David Grant	David Grant	David Grant	Steve Hamilton	Charles Livingston	Nathan Byrd
	R2		David Grant	Tõnis Kasemets	Tõnis Kasemets	Nathan Byrd	Charles Livingston	Nathan Byrd
5	R1	New Jersey Motorsports Park	Matthew Butson	David Grant	David Grant	Tyler O'Connor	Tyler O'Connor	Tyler O'Connor
	R2		David Grant	Keith Grant	Matthew Butson	Robert Albani	Robert Albani	no classified finishers
6	R1	Summit Point Motorsports Park	Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Bruce Hamilton	Tim Pierce	Paulie Gatto
	R2		Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson	Matthew Butson		Jason Slahor	Jason Slahor

Season summary

The opening event of the 2024 season was held at Road Atlanta, with eleven cars entered across both classes. K-Hill’s Dudley Fleck and Coopsport’s Glenn Cooper took the pole positions for the 016 and Open Class respectively in the only qualifying session held. While Fleck was able to convert his pole position into a win ahead of his teammates Matthew Butson and John McAleer, Cooper dropped to fourth throughout the race, leaving an all-Arrive Drive Motorsport podium of Nathan Byrd, Tim Pierce and Paulie Gatto. Fleck had to concede race two to Butson, with his teammate Clay DellaCava in third this time, while the podium in the Open Class remained unchanged.

The second round at Mid-Ohio attracted only eight cars, with Butson and Byrd claiming both pole positions in their respective classes. The first race offered an exciting battle for the 016 Class win between Butson and Fleck, with the pair trading top spot before Butson had an engine issue, allowing McAleer into second place. The Open Class saw Byrd take an unrivaled victory ahead of Steve Hamilton (Hamilton Motorsport) and Austin Holtgraewe (Arrive Drive). Race two was a calmer affair as Butson was untroubled this time, leading Fleck and McAleer home. Byrd claimed his fourth win in a row, again ahead of Hamilton, with Gatto, who was unable to start the first race, in third.

Pittsburgh hosted round three for ten entrants, and Polestar’s Keith Grant and Nathan Byrd took double pole positions in their classes. 016 Class leader Butson was the fastest car on track throughout the first race as he overtook Grant to take the win, with Alliance’s Richard Zober in third. Butson tried to repeat this feat in the second race, but this time, Grant was able to hold on to first place. The Open Class saw no new winner once again as Byrd added two more to his win streak. Jason Slahor, racing for his eponymous team, was the only other starter in the first race and also took second in race two, with Gatto once again only starting the second race and coming third.

The second half of the season began at Road America, with entries reaching 14 cars. This time, it was Keith’s brother David Grant who secured two 016 Class pole positions, while privateer Steve Hamilton managed to take one Open Class pole position away from Byrd. David led Keith to a Polestar one-two in the first race, with Fleck in third. Byrd ironed out his qualifying mishap by winning the race, while Hamilton dropped to third behind Byrd’s teammate Charles Livingston. The second race was won by one-off entry Tõnis Kasemets, who beat David Grant, with Butson in third. In the Open Class, Livingston and Hamilton took second and third behind dominator Byrd, now on an eight-race winning streak.

Only six competitors traveled to New Jersey Motorsports Park for round five, where Butson and David Grant shared 016 Class pole positions. They each won a race, albeit not the one they started in first - David Grant took a new lap record en route to leading Butson and Zober home in race one, before he failed to start the second race. That left the podium to Butson, Keith Grant and McAleer, with Butson taking the title in the process. The Open class saw only one car entered, shared between Tyler O’Connor and Robert Albani. The former was unable to finish the first race and the latter won race two. That finally broke Byrd’s win streak while he won the title in absence.

The Open Class season ended in quiet fashion at Summit Point Motorsports Park as class champion Butson was the only entrant. Therefore he took both pole positions and won both races, but also managed to set a new track record during race one. The Open Class saw more of a fight, especially because Byrd was still absent. K-Hill's Bruce Hamilton, who was first in the sole qualifying session, dropped to fifth during the first race, with Gatto taking his first win ahead of Slahor and Pierce. After coming through the field to claim second in race one, Slahor went one better in race two, taking the win and demoting Gatto to second. Pierce came third once again in the final race of 2024.

Standings

Scoring system

Three points were awarded for pole position in each class, as well as two more points for the fastest lap per race per class.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th+
Points	50	42	37	34	31	29	27	25	23	21	19	17	15	13	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Each driver's two worst results were dropped.

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver ATL MOH PIT ROA NJM SUM Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 016 Class standings 1 Matthew Butson 2 1 3† 1 1 2 (4) (3) 2 1 1 1 492 2 John McAleer 3 4 2 3 4 4 6 6 276 4 Keith Grant 2 1 2 4 4 2 254 3 Dudley Fleck 1 2 1 2 3 8 249 5 Richard Zober 3 3 5 5 3 3 210 6 David Grant 1 2 1 Ret 155 7 Bill Munholland 5 5 7 7 116 8 Clay DellaCava 4 3 71 9 Tõnis Kasemets Ret 1 53 — Jim Booth DNS DNS 0 Open Class standings 1 Nathan Byrd 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 427 2 Paulie Gatto 3 3 DNS 3 DNS 3 4 4 1 2 308 3 Steve Hamilton 2 2 3 3 4 5 226 5 Jason Slahor 2 2 2 1 178 4 Austin Holtgraewe 5 4 3 4 5 DNS 167 6 Tim Pierce 2 2 DNS DNS 3 3 160 7 Charles Livingston 2 2 6 4 151 8 Tyler O'Connor 1 DNS 55 9 Robert Albani DNS 4 DNS Ret 40 10 Glenn Cooper 4 DNS 37 11 Bruce Hamilton 5 DNS 34 — Joel Haas DNS DNS 0 — Robert Wright DNS DNS DNS DNS 0 Pos Driver R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 Pts ATL MOH PIT ROA NJM SUM

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

See also

• 2024 F2000 Championship Series
• 2024 F1600 Championship Series

External links

• Official website: Formula Race Promotions