Fogarty dominates Atlantic weekend.

It was a dominant weekend from start to finish for 2002 Toyota Atlantic Championship series champion Jon Fogarty as he led all 70 laps en route to his third career Atlantic win in Saturday's Argent Mortgage Toyota Atlantic series event at The Milwaukee Mile oval.

Fogarty, who topped the practice charts on Thursday, set a new course qualifying record on Friday and never faced a serious threat in the race on Saturday, made it two wins in a row for the Pacific Coast Motorsports team.

Fogarty's teammate Alex Figge captured Round 2 in Monterrey, Mexico two weeks ago. Figge's bid to make it two consecutive wins ended early on Saturday as he lost control of his Atlantic machine in Turn 2 on just the third lap of the race. After starting on the first row with his teammate, Figge slammed hard into the outside wall and his day ended almost as quickly as it began.

The accident opened the door for Ryan Dalziel, the defending Milwaukee champion, who entered the weekend with the series points lead. After starting third, Dalziel ran second behind Fogarty for most of the race.

Although he rarely put any pressure on the leader, Dalziel looked as if he would safely bring home a second-place finish and maintain his lead in the championship. With four laps remaining in the race, however, Alex Garcia made contact with the Turn 2 wall just ahead of Dalziel. The Scot tried to avoid Garcia's car but instead he also wound up making hard contact with the wall and eventually collected Garcia as the two machines came to rest.

Neither driver was injured in the accident but Dalziel's day was ended and he fell to fourth in the points as a result of the crash. The race was forced to end under caution due to the ensuing cleanup following the incident.

Rookie Ronnie Bremer was the main beneficiary from Dalziel's mishap. Running his first oval race this weekend, Bremer started fifth and ran strong all day. When Dalziel crashed, the native of Copenhagen, Denmark took advantage. He crossed the finish line in second position and after two consistent fourth-place efforts to start the year, Bremer moved into the championship points lead in only his third race in Atlantic competition.

Another talented rookie, Andrew Ranger also made the most of his Sierra Sierra Enterprises teammate's late-race crash. Showing good speed all weekend on his first oval track, Ranger started the day in fifth and never wavered, moving into third place after Dalziel's accident. The young Canadian earned his second podium finish of the year and he moved into fifth place in the championship hunt and trails only Bremer in the 2004 BG Products Rookie of the Year standings.

Danica Patrick pressured Ranger for most of the race before settling for a fourth-place finish - her third top-five result this season. Patrick remains second in the championship hunt, just four points behind Bremer.

In his first oval race, Bryan Sellers brought home respectable fifth-place finish while Rocky Moran Jr. raced to sixth to score some valuable points. Moran moves into third place in the point standings and trails Bremer by only nine markers heading into Round 4.

Equalling his best Atlantic finish of seventh was rookie Chris Festa of Team Rahal while
Another freshman pilot, Jonathan Bomarito of Transnet Racing finished eighth. Lynx Racing rookie Josh Hunt was ninth in his first career oval effort.

The Toyota Atlantic Championship Presented by Yokohama moves on to Portland, Oregon for Rounds 4 and 5 of the 2004 campaign. The Atlantics will run a doubleheader race weekend at Portland International Raceway, June 19-20.