De Silvestro keeps the points lead and Muniz earns his second Hard Charger award

Joliet, July 28, 2009: The race for the 2009 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda title was turned uncomfortably tight for Team Stargate Worlds driver Simona De Silvestro after the first race of the Harrah's Autobahn Grand Prix presented by Mazda double-header weekend. Coming into Saturday's race, the last of the weekend, De Silvestro and teammate Frankie Muniz were seeking to finish the weekend regaining ground in the points chase.

Starting third on the grid De Silvestro once again began the race tucked behind the second place of Jonathan Summerton, while his teammate and race leader John Edwards charged ahead. As was the case during race #1, De Silvestro and Summerton spent much of the race battling each other with De Silvestro trying to set up Summerton for a pass and not being able to get the right opportunity. De Silvestro's fortunes changed with 8 minutes to go as Summerton pulled off the track due to a mechanical issue. With Summerton no longer in the mix she picked up the pace and put down lap times quicker than the race leader Edwards but in the end she did not have enough time to show what she could have done. De Silvestro would end up finishing in the second spot. She still retains the 2009 Championship lead by five points.

Muniz begun the race in the tenth spot and after a couple of laps had managed to claw himself to the eighth spot and continued to focus on the seventh place of Markus Niemela. Muniz enjoyed a very big gap between himself and the ninth place of Max Lefevre. Muniz would end moving one position after Summerton pulled out of the race with eight minutes left. He would go on to finish the race in the seventh spot. The solid effort put on by Muniz by charging from the tenth spot to the seventh spot also earned him the race's Hard Charger award. This would be his second such award of the 2009 season. The first award was earned at the Miller Motorsports Park race earlier in the season.

The series returns to competition on August 8th at Mid Ohio..