The fourth season of the Alpha Touring Challenge has hit its halfway point. With six races left, here’s a look at a few fun statistics that tell the story of the season thus far, as well as our breakdown of the championship contenders at this stage of the season.
Incidents Per Lap
Of all drivers, Travis Lapainis has been the safest this season. His 0.079 incidents per lap is a league best. Jacob Whalley is not far behind, made even more impressive by how he has managed to drive so safely and still bring home consistently solid results.
| Name | Incidents Per Lap |
| Travis Lapainis | 0.079 |
| Jacob Whalley | 0.117 |
| Justin T Rhodes | 0.119 |
| Ronald Methot | 0.129 |
| Wojciech Swirydowicz | 0.154 |
Laps Led
This is a chaotic metric. It can be misleading due to some tracks being shorter and others not producing much overtaking, but it’s still fun to have a look. Swirydowicz has led 81 to Slugnificent’s 80, though Swirydowicz has been inconsistent with his presence at races. Whalley sits in third, where the majority of his laps led are sourced from his stellar defensive drive for victory at Lime Rock.
| Name | Laps Led |
| Wojciech Swirydowicz | 81 |
| Robert Abrams | 80 |
| Jacob Whalley | 37 |
| Logan McKinzie | 22 |
| Jérôme Bajulaz | 20 |
Total Laps
A good means of tracking consistency, there is only one driver that has completed every single lap of the season, and it’s championship leader McKinzie. Shink and Gurd have both missed out on just one lap all season.
| Name | Total Laps |
| Logan McKinzie | 291 |
| Francois Shink | 290 |
| Shaun Gurd | 290 |
| Wiley Cox | 285 |
| James D Carr | 284 |
Rookie of the Season
James D Carr looks like the best of the Season 4 rookie class at this stage, but a lot could change over the final six events. Nick Beaver and David Bauer have looked strong, and a couple of mistakes from Carr could easily put them back in contention.
| Name | Points |
| James D Carr | 221 |
| David Bauer2 | 129 |
| Nick Beaver | 118 |
| Justin T Rhodes | 114 |
| Ronald Methot | 111 |
Contenders
1: Logan McKinzie
McKinzie has done everything right in the first half of the season. Starting slow with the Veloster, a switch to the Elantra was exactly what he needed. Of the 13 races/heats so far, he has finished 4th or better in 11 of them. Cap it off with a win at Road Atlanta, and it’s clear he’s the favorite of the contenders.
2: Francois Shink
Shink has had a solid season marred by a couple of unlucky incidents. Very much still in the fight and usually somewhere in-between Slugnificent and McKinzie’s pace, drop weeks will be very kind to him should he continue to drive with this level of consistency. Overall he is usually a bit faster than McKinzie, he just needs to fully capitalize on it.
3: Slugnificent
This season has been the perfect microcosm of Slug’s Alpha Touring Challenge career as a whole. He’s always one of the fastest cars on track, and on his day he can win with ease. However, his tendency to get caught up in various incidents has hurt him dearly this season. While still practically even with Shink in points, he will need to keep his nose clean in the future or risk falling out of contention very quickly.
4. Jérôme Bajulaz
After starting the season off hot with a win at Belle Isle, Bajulaz has had a very quiet few weeks, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He’s done nothing to explicitly harm his championship hopes, but will need a bit more pace in the second half of the season to bring it home.
5. James D Carr
Carr is in a similar situation to Slugnificent. He will benefit massively from drop weeks, but he cannot make any more mistakes this season. He’s had some impressive finishes and at times had pace to challenge the rest of the contenders head-to-head, now he needs to put it all together in the second half of the schedule.
Alpha Touring Challenge 