Niemela Sets Fastest Lap And Finishes P4 In The Second Round Of This Weekend's Atlantic Formula X Double-header

Millville, June 14, 2009: Current Atlantic Champion Markus Niemela finished P4 in the second of two events this weekend at the New Jersey Motorsports Park. The young Finn, who qualified third, found himself pushed off the road again at the start. Then he had to struggle with an ill-handling car for much of the race until he and his Newman-Wachs guys got the situation sorted out. Once the changes were completed in the late stages of the race, Niemela proceeded to produce faster and faster times until he set fastest lap of the race at a 1:11:987. Unfortunately, however, he as only able to secure P4 as he ran out of laps at the end.

"Although I got pushed into the dirt at the start again and the recovery dropped me back, it still feels good to finish up-front, but I really wanted a podium. After I recovered from the off, the car was really terrible, but my guys continued to work on it and in the end the car was really fast. By then, however, I really couldn't do much more than P4, but setting fast lap is still a great accomplishment given how we struggled early. In the end we have some points, my guys are clicking, and we're on the championship's radar again, so watch out!"

About Markus

Markus Niemela was born and raised in Rauma Finland in 1984. His racing career started in Karts at the age of five. After winning several FIA-KF1 (formerly Formula A) Karting championships in Finland and in greater Europe, he moved up to Formula Ford in 2004, subsequently winning the Finnish Championship, the Swedish Championship, and the STCC Formula Ford championship, finishing the season second in total International Formula Ford points.In 2005, he moved up to the UK Formula Renault Winter Championship after an abortive run in Formula BMW-ADAC with Team Rosberg, averaging 3rd in qualifying for the season, with one win, and one pole

In 2006 he moved to Formula Renault UK with Mark Burdett Motorsports. There he produced one win, one fastest lap, one pole, won multiple “driver of the day” awards and finished 7th in the Championship.In 2007 he campaigned in GP2 with BCN Competition, Formula Renault Eurocup with BVM Minardi, and also ran in the Asian Formula Renault Championship with March 3 Racing. In 2008 he came to the U.S. to run in the Cooper Tire Atlantic Championship Powered By Mazda Series with Brooks Associated Racing, where he subsequently won the 2008 Atlantic Championship.

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