RACE: Mildly exciting apart from the standing start, and the podium looks awfully familiar.

TRACK: The carnage at the wide, inviting Las Vegas did not repeat itself at a tighter, narrower Long Beach.

THE BIG PICTURE: Arguably the series highest profile appearance of the year, it would have been better with less yellows that consumed one-third of the race.

BIGGEST SURPRISE: With everyone touting an amazing rookie class, it's interesting that veterans are dominating the series so far. Only one rookie has been on the podium and four of the top six point leaders are veterans.

START: It was awesome to see the 30 cars line up and launch from a dead stop.

MATOS: Rafa has dominated the entire weekend, making this a well earned win, his second in a row in the season, and the leader in the points race.

BOMARITO: The Californian really kept Rafa honest. This is the third consecutive race where Jonathan has podiumed with Matos, starting in 2006 at Elkhart Lake. This consistency bodes well for a championship.

WICKENS: Young Wicki leads Rookie of the Year by earning podium finishes in his first two Atlantic starts.

THE PREDICTOR: The last time we did a special Atlantic Thoughts was last year at Road America. We said that Matos is a favorite to win the 2007 championship. We are looking really smart right now.

EDWARDS: A strong finish today after a mediocre start last week. May even have done better than fourth if not held up by teammate Wickens. And to think, John is only 16!

PERERA: Tried to stuff a more experienced Matos into the wall in Turn 1.

HINCHCLIFFE: Our favorite interviewee, James finished seventh from a tenth starting position.

BREMER Looking for Ronnie to break out.

LEE: Stayed out of trouble this time.

SOFIO: Justin has made a huge leap forward from last year. So far, he has two top-ten finishes while celebrating his birthday at Long Beach. Happy Birthday, Dude!

MUNIZ: Continues to perform respectably in spite of lack of strong training in his earlier years.

MACDONALD: Some say Bret should remain parked, as his orange car was described by one team as “a traffic cone.”

JIANG: Tengyi is not going to be the great Chinese hope. He is extremely slow.

HEISTAND: Black flagged for unnecessary contact.

SELZNICK: Dan did very well in SCCA club racing (second at the Runoffs) and with the C2 class in Toyota Atlantic. However, he has not been able to make the transition to the main class.

DE SILVESTRO: Never a factor as she ended up meeting the wall. It was not a happy encounter.

SCIUTO: Alan is doing quite well this year after creating his own team from scratch at the very, very last minute. However, he didn't make it through the first lap.

HILDEBRAND: J.R. had similar problems getting through the first lap.

NEW FROM LAST WEEK: Ryan Lewis and Joe D’Agostino.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Veterans.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 6 -- The number of podiums Matos has in his 14 career Atlantic starts.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: For the second year in a row, the pole winner took the race victory. Andreas Wirth did it last season.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Robert Wickens on having to hold off his teammate for the final podium spot, "They radioed me to stop holding John up, and I said screw that, I'm taking off."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Wickens on his great start from the seventh starting position to third, "I got inside the third row, then I decided to outbrake another row."

SCHEDULE: The Atlantic series also does the three consecutive week marathon. At least they got their new car bugs out of the way last year.

Copyright © 2007 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.