Atlantic Racing Team (ART) of Halifax, Canada announced today the first of their two Formula BMW Pacific series drivers for the 2009 season.

Aditya Patel is a 20 year old Indian Commerce student from Chennai and is in his second year with the series. He received much attention and showed off his potential during the 2008 season while driving for Team Eurasia although some misfortunes did not help his final standings in 2009.

Instrumental in the decision to join Atlantic Racing Team were the facts that ART worked continuously with him and his financial advisors to receive the needed funding for 2009.

“In regards to Aditya’s near future we are certain that we will improve Aditya’s racing experience and career in this highly regarded formula series. If not alone for the simple reason that he has now more experience, giving him advantages over most of the competition; hard physical pre-season training allows him now to overcome fatigue easier, especially during the brunt of the summer races. Our objectives are very clear and defined - Aditya will be a front runner and primed for winning as many races for us as he can,” says Ingo Strackerjan, Team Manager for ART.

“Since most of the young drivers are in a one-car-spec series, much comes down to driver/team attitudes. As we had shown last year with 14 year old Chaves, proper racing spirits can overcome many ‘hurdles’. We do not believe in a light hearted approach in racing. We do our job and the driver has to do his; both with the same goal – winning!

“We watched Adiya’s progress last year while in direct competition against him - this will now help ART Race Engineer, Lucas Strackerjan, to guide him in the right direction. We are tremendously proud having for the first time a driver from Asia in our team, after drivers from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Columbia, Canada and the USA” Strackerjan continued.

Atlantic Racing Team has one car available for the 2009 FBMW Pacific season. Two additional cars are arriving from Canada in Kuala Lumpur shortly in time for the first test and race weekend, forming part of the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix.

Atlantic Racing Team has been involved in Formula BMW since it’s inception in 2004, running as many as a four car field. In 2008, after 4 years in the USA/Canada FBMW Series, it expanded to the FBMW Pacific Series. Today Atlantic Racing Team operates a total of four cars in Europe, USA/Canada and the Pacific. Atlantic Racing Team will also provide for qualified drivers One-Off’s in the Pacific and Americas Series as well as test days in Europe.