The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics, Toyota Atlantics, or just Atlantics or Formula Atlantic, although the latter two terms risk confusion with the Sports Car Club of America's amateur Formula Atlantics division.
Alex Barron is an American former race car driver. He began racing CART FedEx World Series Championship cars in 1998 and made his first Indy Racing League Northern Lights Series start in 2001.
Patrick Carpentier is a retired Canadian professional auto racing driver. In the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, he achieved five wins and 24 podiums, as well as two third place championship finishes in 2002 and 2004. The long-time Champ Car driver switched to the IndyCar Series in 2005, and moved on to Grand Am Road Racing in 2007. After a few NASCAR races in 2007, he moved full-time into the series in 2008. Since 2009, he has only had part-time drives, so became a contractor and renovator in Montreal, trading in real estate in Las Vegas, as well as being a color commentator for television coverage of various racing series. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 32 Ford Fusion for Go FAS Racing. Carpentier is now the president of a home construction firm in Quebec.
David Empringham is a Canadian auto racing driver. He is a two-time Toyota Atlantic, one-time Indy Lights and two-time Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge champion. Most recently, Empringham won the 2012 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS class driver's title with co-driver John Farano.
Richie Hearn is an American former racing driver.
The 1996 Indy Racing League was the first season in the history of the series, which was created and announced on March 11, 1994 by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as a supplementary Indy-car series to the established Indy Car World Series sanctioned by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) since 1979. It consisted of only three races, as the season concluded with the 80th Indianapolis 500 in May. Walt Disney World Speedway was completed in time to host the first ever event of the Indy Racing League (IRL), and Phoenix International Raceway switched alliances from CART to the IRL, in order to host the second event of the season. At the conclusion of the three-race schedule, Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins ended up tied for first place in the season championship. With no tiebreaker rule in place, the two drivers were declared co-champions. Its creation, and the opposition of Indy Car's teams and drivers to take part in it, marked the start of 'the Split', a 12-year period of competition between rival series at the top level of American Open Wheel racing that had lasting negative effects in the sport.
The 2001 Indy Racing Northern Light Series saw the addition of five races and loss of one to bring the total to 13. Chip Ganassi Racing returned to the Indy 500 with four cars and were joined on the grid by Penske Racing and Team Kool Green. Sam Hornish Jr. won 3 races on his way to the championship while the less consistent Buddy Lazier won four races on his way to second place in his title defense.
The 2002 Indy Racing League (IRL) was one of transition, with two reigning CART championship teams, Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing, joining the series with full time entries. The Oldsmobile engine was rebranded as a Chevrolet, and both Honda and Toyota announced their participation in the series starting in 2003 while Infiniti announced its withdrawal.
Hemelgarn Racing is an American auto racing team owned by Ron Hemelgarn. The team debuted in 1985, and competed in the CART and Indy Racing League ranks until the team originally shut down in 2010. The team returned to competition in 2015, and currently competes full-time in the USAC Silver Crown Series with driver Justin Grant. Grant won the 2020 championship for the team.
The 1996 Toyota Atlantic Championship season was the 23rd season of the formula race car Atlantic Championship. It was contested over 12 races between March 3 and September 7, 1995. The Player's Toyota Atlantic Championship Drivers' Champion was Patrick Carpentier. All teams had to utilize Toyota engines. In C2-class 23 different drivers competed, but none of them for the whole season.
Indy Regency Racing was a racing team owned by Sal Incandela who had worked with several Formula One and CART teams.
Pagan Racing was a racing team owned by Texas businessmen Jack and Allan Pagan.
The 1996 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World was the first round of the 1996 Indy Racing League, and the inaugural event for the Indy Racing League, who initiated the American open-wheel split that would last for 12 years. The race was held on January 27, 1996, at the 1.000 mi (1.609 km) Walt Disney World Speedway in Bay Lake, Florida. The race was won by a rookie driver, Buzz Calkins, after leading 130 laps. Future Indy Racing League and NASCAR champion Tony Stewart also made his Indy car debut, finishing second after a late-race duel with Calkins.
The 1996 True Value 200 was the first round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League. The race was held on August 18, 1996, at the 1.058-mile (1.703 km) New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. This race was dominated, but not won, by Tony Stewart, who passed Arie Luyendyk on lap 15 and led 165 laps until he suffered an engine computer failure, with 18 laps to go and a nearly three-lap lead. 1996 Indy Racing League co-champion Scott Sharp went on to win the race.
The 1996 Las Vegas 500K was the second round of the 1996-1997 Indy Racing League. The race was held on September 15, 1996, and was the inaugural event for the 1.500 mi (2.414 km) Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Clark County, Nevada. It was the fifth and last race for the IRL in the year 1996, and, thus, the last race contested under the frozen 1995 IndyCar regulations, before the arrival of a new chassis and engine formula for 1997. Richie Hearn was the winner of the race, which was defined by its multiple crashes and high attrition, with nine lengthy cautions, 83 laps under yellow, a red flag and four drivers being extricated from their cars.
The 1999 Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota was held on October 31, 1999, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California as the final showdown of the 1999 CART World Series season. The race was marred by an accident in the early stages of the race which killed Forsythe Racing driver Greg Moore.
The 1994 Toyota Atlantic Championship season was contested over 11 rounds. The Player's Toyota Atlantic Championship Drivers' Champion was David Empringham.
The 1992 Toyota Atlantic Championship season was contested over 14 rounds. The SCCA Toyota Atlantic Championship Drivers' Champion was Chris Smith.
Aaron Justus is a former American racing driver. Justus won the USF2000 championship in the year 2000 and continued into the Atlantic Championship. Currently Justus is an entrepreneur with his own graphics design company.
Della Penna Motorsports was an auto racing team that competed in the Toyota Atlantic, IndyCar, and CART series from 1990 to 2000. The team was founded by Argentinian businessman and engineer John Della Penna, who himself raced in Formula Atlantic during the 1980s. Della Penna got its start in Toyota Atlantic with support from driver Jimmy Vasser in 1990, and by the following season was consistently scoring wins. After Vasser left to drive in CART, Della Penna took a two-year sabbatical from the series, with the hopes of returning with young, untested talent.
Richie Hearn 
