Atlanta: Markus Niemela is the 2008 Atlantic Champion!

All points leader Jonathan Bomarito had to do was finish 2nd and the championship would be his. Barring that, all Jonathan Summerton had to do was finish ahead of Markus Niemela and the championship would be his.

Unfortunately for the American duo, neither of those scenarios played out.

Fortunately for Markus Niemela, his weekend played out perfectly, as he kept his nose clean and his car on track, to take the checkered flag, the race win, the Rookie of the Year title and the overall 2008 Cooper Tires Atlantic Championship!

“I’ve been racing for 19 years, and I’m 24-years-old now, and I’ve been kind of looking for one race where I don’t have to explain anything,” said Niemela. “I can just go after the race and say, 'I won the race and I won the championship.’ I don’t have to make any excuses or explain anything I did. This is just sweet and simple, really. I think the car was good, I was good, and everything just fell in the right place"

American rookie Dane Cameron, who wasn't a factor for the championship but who was seeking his first win, took the lead right from the race’s standing start, followed by Niemela and Summerton, both of whom were battling to snatch the championship away from points leader Bomarito. This task was made that much easier when Bomarito found himself out of the race after just 10 laps with a mechanical problem, his championship hopes evaporated. Shortly thereafter, J.R. Hildebrand, driving the Genoa Racing machine for TKM, ran off-course in Turn 1, making contact with the barrier bringing out the first full-course caution in the race. This would prove to be the turning point in the race and the championship.

On the restart Niemela shot to the inside of Cameron to take over the race lead, a move reiterated by Canadian Kevin Lacroix on Jonathan Summerton, taking the third spot away and providing the points buffer needed by Niemela to potentially capture the championship, a fact not lost on Summerton who in a last-ditch effort to regain some positions and valuable championship points, made contact with Cameron, then running in third after losing another position to Lacroix. The contact damaged both cars and sent them off course bringing out the second and final full-course caution

Niemela was able to just cruise across the line, capturing his second consecutive victory, and both the Rookie of the Year & the overall Championship title. Canadian drivers Kevin Lacroix and James Hinchcliffe completed the podium.

Quotes from the Podium:

Markus Niemela, Winner and Series Champion:

“I knew during the race what I had to do. I saw (Jonathan) Summerton behind me all the time and I knew we were going to have to have somebody in between us for me to be him in the championship points. My team was telling me all the time that J.R. Hildebrand was coming and that he was fast, and he might be the guy to go between us. Dane Cameron was a little bit further up in the front at that point. The, the safety car came, which was lucky for me. At that point, I asked on the radio, 'Where is Bomarito?’ The team told me that he’s not there anymore. He’s out. They said, 'You have to pass Cameron, because Hildebrand is out.’ He was the fastest car to challenge, so I just went for it in the first corner after the restart. It was a really good restart. I was past Dane already before the corner, actually, and I don’t know what happened. I think I won.”

Kevin Lacroix, Second place:

“The weekend started pretty rough,” said Lacroix. “We had two pretty big accidents and I felt sorry for my team because they worked overtime for two days. I wanted to end the weekend very good, and I think that’s what I did today. We had a very good car. We got lucky on the restart, when everybody crashed in front of me. We got lucky to get second place, but the car was good. Thank you to my team, Walker Racing, they did a great job all weekend long. We had some bad luck all year long, but we had good luck today, so I’m very happy.”

James Hinchcliffe, Third place:

“With the struggling that we’ve been doing the last four race weekends, it’s really great for the whole Forsythe/Pettit team to end it on a podium. Taking fourth place in the championship, it’s great to move back up there, but obviously that’s not what we wanted when we started the season. You can talk a lot about the what ifs of a championship. What if we hadn’t quite lost the car there? What if I hadn’t had a couple of incidents in Three Rivers and New Jersey? But the flip side is, what if I didn’t have a team when I started the season that was capable of running me up front? What if I didn’t have the support of great family and friends in my 13-some-odd-year career in racing? It’s bittersweet, but at the end of the day, we’re still pretty lucky. Thanks to the whole crew for a great job all year long.”

Niemela becomes the first rookie to win the overall championship since Simon Pagenaud accomplished the same feat in 2006.

Despite finishing a heartbreaking 17th in the race, Jonathan Bomarito held on to finish second in the overall championship. Jonathan Summerton held on for third overall.

All of the drivers will be honored on Friday evening in the 2008 Atlantic Championship Awards Banquet at the Chateau Elan Resort & Winery in Braselton, Ga.

Congratulations to all of the drivers, teams and the Cooper Tires Atlantic series staff for and exciting and at times difficult season.

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