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REUNION: 1970s Formula Atlantics Featured In Monterey
Formula Atlantic cars of the 1970s were the guilty pleasures of Gilles Villeneuve, James Hunt, Keke Rosberg, Bobby Rahal and plenty of other racing legends.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted August 17, 2012  
Gilles Villeneuve's awe-inspiring car control was honed and refined during the 1970s in Atlantics before he made the leap to Formula One. (Photo: LAT)


The 2012 edition of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion pays tribute Carroll Shelby’s Ford-powered Cobras, featuring more than 40 examples of the Texan’s iconic creations, and if you look down the entry list past a variety of run groups, you’ll find another collection of Ford-powered racing cars that has been deemed worthy of its own class.

For diehard open-wheel racing fans, the Formula Atlantic series, run under an assortment of sanctioning bodies from 1974 through 2009, stood as the best training series Indy car racing ever had.
Atlantic cars like this March 79B will run in anger at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend. (Photo: Wouter Melissen/Ultimatecarpage.com)

With 250 or more horsepower from the Cosworth-built 1.6-liter twin-cam four-cylinder engine--simply known as the “BDA” in deference to its code name, wings and ridiculously wide rear tires, the original Atlantic cars oozed speed and style.

Unlike Formula 3, its European counterpart, Atlantic cars had enough grunt to spin the tires and enough rubber to handle massive broadslides. They were the guilty pleasures of Gilles Villeneuve, James Hunt, Keke Rosberg and plenty of other heroes and legends.

New for 2012, the Rolex Reunion organizers have assembled 28 Atlantic cars from 1974-1980 to run in Class 8A at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and for those who remember seeing Marchs, Ralts, Chevrons and others chassis run in anger, you’re in for a treat if you can make it to the Monterey Peninsula this weekend.

Nostalgia for that early Atlantic period also extends to those who piloted the free-wheeling creations.

21-year-old Bobby Rahal was part of the freshman 1974 Atlantic class, and used what he learned in the training series to earn a berth in Formula One before forging a long and successful career in Indy cars.

Although Rahal, who earned three CART championships and a victory at the 1986 Indy 500, will miss the Rolex Reunion due to a scheduling conflict, he was keen on sharing his thoughts about the beloved series.

“I think it was just one of those moments in time that if you were a young driver back then, Atlantics was clearly the place to go,” he said. “They had Formula Super Vee here, which was a good Formula, but Atlantic was just much more of a car than the Super Vee was. More power and chassis and more tire. I just think it was probably a car you could drive a little bit harder than the Super Vee.

“Having done both, although I didn't do too many different Super Vee races, the Atlantic car was really a car that you could drive with great heart and it really taught you balance. The tires back then, basically, you almost just threw the car into a lot of the corners and counter-steered it and drove it on the throttle. It was a very special car.”
With a young son following in his footsteps, Bobby Rahal, right, steered Graham Rahal into Atlantics to prepare him for a career in Indy car racing. (Photo: LAT)

The Atlantics of the 1970s not only helped to produce drivers like Rahal, Villeneuve, Price Cobb and Danny Sullivan, among others, but also delivered an annual spectacle that seems just as unreal today as it did back then.

With a healthy dose of prize money on the line, the Trois Rivieres round drew top F1 talent to battle with the up-and-coming talent, and for Rahal, it was a spectacle that continues to capture his imagination.

“In ’75 you had Patrick Depailler and Jacques Laffite,” he said. “In ’76 you had Alan Jones. These were guys that were winning Formula One races and they’re over here to race in a junior category. Can you imagine that happening today…Michael Schumacher going to drive in a Formula Atlantic race? [Sebastien] Vettel showing up for an Indy Lights race? And then you had us young guys, and there was a lot of talent there. For all of us, it was exciting to go head-to-head with these guys and you hope you fared well.

“People would look on that positively and certainly it worked in your favor and opened doors if you did well. And it wasn’t a big series, or international. Hell, most of the races were in Canada, and that shows you just how wide its appeal was. Everyone came over to try and prove themselves. It was just a very special time.”
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