RAFAEL MATOS/#6 Sierra Sierra Enterprises won the Atlantic race Sunday morning at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

This is his second Atlantic victory this season, and the young Brazilian has led every session all weekend. It was "definitely a perfect weekend" for the racer from Belo Horizonte (beautiful horizon), the same hometown as two Champ Car drivers, CRISTIANO da MATTA and BRUNO JUNQUEIRA.

They are all close racing buddies, despite their age differences. Da Matta was here this weekend and displayed the Green Flag for the Champ Car race.

Matos turned the fastest race lap of 1:16.554/92.546 mph on Lap 22. Matos also claimed that honour in last year's Atlantic race at LBGP, where he finished second.

JONATHAN BOMARITO/#23 PR1 Motorsports was runner-up, 1.517 seconds behind. This is the second podium finish this year for Bomarito, the seasoned native of Monterey CA.

Third finisher and top Rookie was ROBERT WICKENS/#3 Forsythe Championship Racing. This too is a second podium finish in two races for the young Canadian high school student. He credits the nice teamwork with Rookie JOHN EDWARDS, who also races for Forsythe. Edwards, the youngest driver in the series history at age 16, finished fourth. FRANCK PERERA/#11 Condor Motorsports rounded out the top five.

Bomarito and Wickens finished in reverse order at last weekend's Vegas Grand Prix.

Matos leads the standings with 65 points; Wickens is second with 54, Bomarito third with 52; Perera fourth/42 and JAMES HINCHCLIFFE/#9 Sierra Sierra, who finished seventh, is fifth with 41 points.


The track was slick after Saturday night's late rainfall. The first attempt at a standing start was aborted when J.R. HILDEBRAND/#36 Newman Wachs Racing had a mechanical problem.

On the second start, ALAN SCIUTO/#20 Alan Sciuto Racing hit the tyres in Turn One. His day was done. Perera made a bold inside move on Matos going into the infamous bottleneck Turn One, failed and went from second to fifth, where he ultimately finished.

There were three cautions for ten laps of the 31-lap race, all for car contacts. No one was injured. The race ran for 46.29.978, a new record.