Polestar Racing Group is an American motorsport team based in

Chardon, Ohio Chardon is a city in and the county seat of Geauga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,242 at the 2020 census.Atlantic Championship The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics (after its former name), Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines) ...

. It was founded in 2001 and is owned by husband and wife team Jim and Pam Griffith, and Bruce Potter. Polestar has notched 6 victories in the Atlantic series, the first one in 2004, by

Ronnie Bremer Ronnie Bremer (born 14 October 1978) is a Danish racecar driver who has driven in the Champ Car World Series. Bremer won three consecutive Danish Formula A karting championships from 1998 to 2000, before racing in British Formula Ford and Formula ...

, who moved to Polestar after driving the season’s first five races for

Brooks Associates Racing Brooks Associates Racing is an American motorsport team based in Tucson, Arizona, which competes in the Indy Lights series. It previously competed in the Atlantic Championship where it won the 2008 season championship. The team was founded in 20 ...

. The team is notable for running female driver

Katherine Legge Katherine Anne Legge ( ; born 12 July 1980) is a British professional auto racing driver, competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. She is also featured in ''Richard Hammond's Crash Course''. Racing career Early racing and Atlantics ...

during the 2005 season, who became the first woman to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America when she won the season’s first race at Long Beach. The team won the revived 2012 SCCA Atlantic Championship, with Memphis-area homebuilder David Grant winning the first of the revived series.

The team

Polestar Racing Group was founded in 2001 and is owned by husband and wife team Jim and Pam Griffith, and Bruce Potter. Jim Griffith is a

race engineer A race engineer is a motorsport team member who analyses data to achieve the best performance from the vehicle and driver. The race engineer communicates with the team's data analyst, mechanics, and driver, both between and during races. Off the ...

, who was part of the Atlantic championship-winning team of

Patrick Carpentier Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a retired Canadian professional auto racing driver. In the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, he achieved five wins and 24 podiums, as well as two third place championship finishes in 2002 ...

(1996), Alex Barron (1997), and

Buddy Rice Buddy Rice (born January 31, 1976) is an American former race car driver. He is best known for winning the 2004 Indianapolis 500 while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, and the 2009 24 Hours of Daytona for Brumos Racing. Career Early years ...

(2000). Additional team members include engineer Glenn Knabenshue and chief mechanics Constantin Gheorghe and Jason Robb.

2003 season

Drivers:Jonathan Macri 2003 was the team's first season in the Atlantic championship. Jonathan Marci finished fourth in the drivers’ standings.

2004 season

Drivers:Ronnie Bremer Polestar won its first Atlantic Championship race, with Ronnie Bremer taking the checkered flag at the

Denver street circuit The Grand Prix of Denver was a Champ Car race last held on a street circuit in Denver, Colorado, United States. A Champ Car race was first held in Denver in 1909 on a 14.5-mile (23.3-km) road circuit in nearby Brighton. Racing returned to the C ...

. Bremer finished fifth in the Atlantic Championship and second in the Rookie of the Year standings and the graduated to the Champ Car series where he raced for one season for both

Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) is an American professional open-wheel racing team that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team was founded in 1984 and is owned by former driver Dale Coyne. From 1995 to 2000, the team was known as Payton-Coyn ...

and the HVM team

2005 season

Drivers:

, Antoine Bessette By far the team’s most successful season, Polestar won 5 races in 2004, making them the most successful team for that season. Katherine Legge earned three wins and Antoine Bessette won an additional two races, as well as earning pole position in one of them. Legge and Bessette finished third and fourth, respectively, in the championship final standings. Legge won the series opener at the

Long Beach Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in downtown Long Beach, California. Christopher Pook is the founder of the event. It w ...

in her first career Atlantic championship start. In doing so, she became the first woman to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America.{{cite news , first=Amy, last=Rosewater, title=Women hope Legge's win is start of something big , url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/2005-05-03-female-drivers_x.htm , work=

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

, date=May 23, 2005 , accessdate=May 30, 2009 Legge went on to win two more races, at

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

and San Jose. She had a total finished of five podium finishes, and received the Toyota Atlantic BBS Rising Star 2005 Award. Bessette won at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. For the season, he had 4 podium finishes, and received the

Gilles Villeneuve Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve () (January 18, 1950 – May 8, 1982) was a Canadian racing driver, who spent six years in Grand Prix motor racing with Ferrari, winning six races and widespread acclaim for his performances. An enthusiast of ...

award by the Atlantic series.

2006 season

Drivers: Alan Sciuto, Antoine Bessette, Ronnie Bremer Alan Scuito, a rookie, finished the season ranked 8th. He became the youngest-ever Atlantic pole winner at just 17 years of age at Denver. Ronnie Bremer made a single appearance, in

. Antoine Bassette returned to drive in one race, the season finale at Road America in

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Elkhart Lake is a village in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, located within the northwestern part of the county within the Town of Rhine. The population was 967 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropoli ...

2007 season

Drivers:Ronnie Bremer, Bret MacDonald The team again ran two cars in 2007. Bremer returned to the Atlantic Championship and to Polestar, after driving the 2005 season in the

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

series.

2008 season

Drivers: Rich Zober The team competed in a single race, at the

New Jersey Motorsports Park New Jersey Motorsports Park is a Road racing, road course "Motorsports Entertainment Complex" located in Millville, New Jersey, Millville, Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. It has hosted races since openi ...

References

External links

Official website
American auto racing teams Atlantic Championship teams Auto racing teams established in 2001 2001 establishments in Ohio