The idea for A2V was conceived at the close of the 2024 season. Masters “Formula Atlantic Plus” had been a decent success over here in the States, but Masters itself was in shambles and not coming back to the US. The three classes of cars (Atlantic, SV and F2) had shown that they could race together competitively, and have a good time doing it. So the idea was hatched to start a series of our own.
Like Masters, we want a place for all these cars to race. They have a lot in common - alloy tubs, high powered 4 cylinder engines, wings (and sometimes tunnels) to create downforce, big slick tires, etc. But unlike Masters, we want to split out the four main types of car. There will be class awards and points given SEPARATELY to the top finishers in each class. So you don’t need to stress about your overall position, just where you are relative to the guys in your own class.
Class 1 - Flat Bottom Atlantic - Formula Atlantic’s with no tunnels. Ostensibly, this means up to 1979. But if you show up with a March 80A with 79B sidepods, that’s fine by us. Iron block 1600 BD’s on carbs.
Class 2 - Tunneled Atlantic - Formula Atlantic up to ‘86. Again, this is a fuzzy cutoff. What we don’t want (for now) is Toyota’s or carbon tubs. So if you have an ‘87 or ‘88 Ralt RT4, you’re welcome to race with us. But for now guys, sorry no DB4’s or Toyotas. Iron block 1600 BD’s on carbs.
Class 3 - SuperVee - This one covers a lot of ground, as the SuperVee landscape is as varied as the American West. 1600cc, 1800cc, who-knows-what cc, carbs, mechanical injection, electronic injection, VW brakes, Atlantic brakes, 6”/8” wheels, 8”/10” wheels, Atlantic wheels… Trying to keep all this in line will be a dizzying proposition. We are going to keep this simple: if your car has a watercooled VW engine - it’s a SuperVee in our series. Going forward, SuperVee folks are going to vote with your wallets. If we have 12 SV’s show up at every round, and 10 of them have 1800cc electronic injected engines, guess what the rules will look like for year two? Show up and show out. Your participation will help guide the series going forward. 1989 is the cutoff, but since the SV series allowed partial composite tubs in period way before 1989, (see Anson), we will allow them.
Class 4 - Formula 2 - There are very few pukka F2 cars in the US, but we wanted to have a class for them. We are allowing up to 1984 (as F3000 replaced F2 in 1985), but the other reason we wanted a space for this class is it allows us a place to put “less than compliant” FA’s. Injection, alloy blocks, Hart 420R’s, BMW M-12’s, Cosworth BDG’s etc.
Caveats and notes -
This will be a gentleman’s series. That means we all need to act as such. We will treat our drivers and entrants as gentlemen, and expect that they conduct themselves as such. For this series to thrive, we need camaraderie and fellowship. We want the race on Saturday to be of equal importance to the post-race beer and awards presentation.
Cars will be prepared to period. If you can prove your BT40 ran a March 76B wing in period, we will allow it. But what we don’t want is modded up cars with relocated pickup points, modern shocks, stressed oil pans (in cars where they were not), etc. Again, when all else fails, see #1 above.
WE WILL FOLLOW ALONG WITH ANY VMC SUSPENSIONS. If you are sat down by your local VMC club for a 13/13, don’t bother entering an A2V race. Similarly, we will take on track infractions seriously and if need be, take appropriate action.
If you show up with an fuel injection on your Atlantic, you automatically get moved to F2. If you show up with a 1700cc engine in your Atlantic, you automatically get moved to F2. If you show up with an alloy block in your Atlantic… well, you get the drill. We don’t want to send anyone home here, we want everyone to come race with us. BUT, we want folks to know they are on a level playing field. Along those lines, we reserve the right to place someone in a different class based upon the build of their car.
F3 cars? On a case by case basis. If you have something like a Ralt RT30/31 or a Reynard 853/863, etc and you’d like to come race with us, please reach out.
What about the Toyotas? Swifts? RT40/41’s? Don’t get us wrong, we would love to have a place for these cars. And if this series takes off and does well, maybe year 2 or year 3 we can do that with a separate grid all by itself. But for now, we are going to focus on what we know will work, and what we know will provide big grids, good competition, and good fun.