Teenager Ryan Norman clinches Pro Formula Atlantic Championship for K-Hill Motorsports

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Ryan Norman’s dominance of the Pro Formula Atlantic Series was rewarded last weekend when he clinched the 2016 championship in his No. 48 Swift Mazda with two races to spare. Norman’s commanding eight victories in 13 starts easily got the job done for the 18-year-old honor student from Aurora, Ohio, leaving the final two races at Virginia International Raceway as extended victory laps for the upstart pro. 

 
“This was my first championship, hopefully with more to come, but no matter what, this will be the first one and I’ll never forget it for the rest of my career,” Norman said. “I’m super stoked, and I want to thank my dad (John Norman) for all of his support and belief in me as well as Kris Kaiser and everyone at K-Hill Motorsports for giving me this chance.”
 
Norman quickly put a stranglehold on SCCA’s fastest category, winning the season opener at Sebring International Raceway and collecting six of the first seven race trophies up for grabs in the open-wheel class. With title sponsorship from “FlipSide — Meat, Greet, Eat” deluxe hamburger restaurants, Norman grilled the competition every weekend, slowing only when his K-Hill Motorsports-prepared car suffered a rare mechanical issue or his driving was a touch too aggressive.
 
“We started testing last October and at first I was going to run USF2000, but my driving coach thought the Atlantic car would be better for me because we’d have more chances to test before the season started in February,” Norman said. “I ended up running as many of the national event tracks as we could so when we got to each of them to race I wasn’t seeing the track for the first time. That made a huge difference.
 
“One of the races we didn’t win early in the year the left rear pushrod failed, which is so fluky because we change those every race. Another time in Pittsburgh I overcooked a corner and all four tires went off the track; my bad. The second race last weekend I didn’t quite have the pace after we made some changes between races, and in the end it was smarter to finish second and clinch the title than push for that win.”
 
Victories for Norman’s team were tallied at Sebring, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen, Virginia International Raceway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and New Jersey Motorsports Park. Aside from his wins, Norman was on the podium on three other occasions with one runner-up and two third-place results.
 
“K-Hill Motorsports gave me an awesome race car every weekend,” Norman said. “I never worried about the car, which allowed me to concentrate all of my efforts on driving as fast as possible. It was a dream season.”
 
Up next, Norman has his sights set on the Mazda Road to Indy series with a fall-back plan to race a USF2000 car.
 
“Indy Lights is the next step I want to take, but if we can’t get all the necessary funding in place, then we’ll probably aim for USF2000 so we can at least race alongside the Indy cars,” Norman said. “For now though, I just want to enjoy this championship with my teammates. We’ll have a fun send-off race at the end of the month, and our plan is to add two more trophies to the equation before we’re done.”
 
2016 Pro Formula Atlantic Series Record
Sebring: victory
Road Atlanta 1: victory
Road Atlanta 2: 6th place
Watkins Glen 1: victory
Watkins Glen 2: victory
Virginia 1: victory
Virginia 2: victory
Mid-Ohio 1: 3rd place
Mid-Ohio 2: victory
Pittsburgh 1: 7th place
Pittsburgh 2: 3rd place
NJMP 1: victory
NJMP 2: 2nd place
 
TOTAL: 8 wins in 13 races, 11 podiums

 
Adam Sinclair
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