Hamilton Ready for 2017 Effort
Salem, NH - With five wins in the Atlantic Challenge in the 2016 Atlantic Championship Series, Bruce Hamilton is looking forward to mounting another race-winning return effort in the 14-race seven-weekend 2017 season, driving for K-Hill Motorsports.
The Atlantic Challenge title came right down to the last race in 2016 at VIR, and the Monkton, Maryland-based driver is hoping for another competitive season.
“There was some great racing in Atlantic,” Hamilton said. “It was good, close competition right down to the final race.”
The move from 30-minute races to longer, 40-minute timed races, two to a weekend, has not fazed the K-hill driver.
“Racing is a sport of patience,” Hamilton noted. “Longer races offer more time to work on strategy that develops during the race.”
The veteran racer, who also campaigns a 1970 Brabham BT36 F2 car anda 2008 Dallara Indy Lights car in other series, said he was attracted to Atlantics due to the combination of ground effects and high-speed.
“Exhilarating, extreme forces, I love open wheel cars, they are relatively safe due to the carbon fiber tub and current safety features built into these cars,” Hamilton explained .”In the pro series, it’s great fun to be on track with the entire race group consisting of the same type of cars. That doesn’t happen in club racing.”
Hamilton admitted he had started racing later in life, first doing a five-day school at Bertil Roos at Pocono, and then racing with the Roos series for four years.
“Then I bought the Brabham F2 car, and met Kris Kaiser (owner, K-Hill motorsports),” Hamilton recalled. “He restored it and then started me in SCCA Club Racing while the Brabham was being resorted.”
Hamilton said the rest was history when he bought his first Atlantic car.
The season starts for Hamilton at VIR, April 28-30.
Does he have advice for young racers coming into the Atlantic Championship Series?
“Same as any race driver,” said Hamilton. “You need lots of seat time and to leave your ego at home. You also need good engineering, coaching and patience. It’s a sport of speed second only to it being a sport of patience. The drive, the ambition has to be within you. You need to be the driving force willing to put in the effort at all levels. Have a goal and be willing to start at the bottom and don’t skip steps.”