Matthews Atlantic Motorsports

Matthews Atlantic Motorsports (often abbreviated as MAM) is a United Kingdom-based race team formed in 2016 after the buyout of William Atkins' stake in Atlantic Motorsports by American team owner/driver Ryan Matthews.

The team primarily competes in Dash Cup and the TM Master Cup Series, running operations from the former Atlantic race shop. The team also fields entries in the North American Auto Club, running out of the former Matthews Motorsports shop in Connecticut under Director of North American Operations David Fitzgerald (the older brother of MAM co-general partner Carter).

History

 * For the team formed with the alliance with Eichholtz Autosport, please see Eichholtz Atlantic Racing.
 * For the team that existed prior to the 2015 purchase by Matthews Motorsports, please see Atlantic Motorsports.

2015
The history of the Atlantic merger with Matthews Motorsports begins in the 2014 offseason, as Matthews Performance entered into an agreement to provide Aspira DCs for the 2015 season. As the season wore on, controversy enveloped Atlantic Motorsports, with team principal William Atkins deciding to put the team up for sale and leave the Dash Cup paddock in time for the 2016 campaign.

Speculation began running rampant through the month of May over who the buyer would be, with names like Tom Delgado and Ben Atkins &mdash; the original co-founder of Atlantic Motorsports &mdash; being bandied about as being the new owner. However, when the calendar rolled over to June and the Spa GP rolled around, the new buyer's identity became known.

2014 FARC champion Matthews, in the midst of defending his championship, mentioned in a cryptic Tweet that while Ben Atkins was building a strong team with STS ATK Racing, "I bet I could do better", with the accompanying hashtag "#comingsoon", inferring his intentions to move to Dash Cup in 2016. He made his intentions more clear in a Tweet regarding the retirement of Verity Logan, "Shame to see @VerityL is retiring. Really would've liked to have raced against her next season," confirming his intentions. But he didn't mention for which team he'd be driving for. Prior to the opening of practice for the Spa GP (and mere hours after marrying fianc&eacute;e Fitzgerald), he announced that he was indeed the buyer.

"I'm thrilled to get this deal done," Matthews said in a press conference. "I've been thinking about this move for a couple years now. I'd have done it last season had I not won the FARC title. But since I did, I felt obligated to run there another year to defend. But now just seems like the right time," he added. "And we're going to do it big."

To further that point: he announced his first two signings: incumbent Atlantic driver (and sister-in-law) Kellan Rogers-Ashby, and defending Dash Cup driver's champion Hannah Percy. Percy, who drove for Kwik Fit in 2015, was Rogers-Ashby's teammate at Atlantic in 2014. The pair finished 1-2 in the final points standings that season, and became known as the Dream Team.

"I'm thrilled to be reunited with Hannah," Rogers-Ashby said. "We did great things as teammates in past seasons, and I also count her as one of my closest friends. I'm glad she's back with us."

2016
The 2016 season started well for MAM, as Ryan Matthews notched the team's first victory in the season-opening Toddring GP, becoming part of a handful of drivers with victories in two different racing series &mdash; FARC and Dash Cup. (He would later add a third different series win as he won the combined PART/Dash Cup race at Daytona).

MAM as a team would continue its historical dominance, claiming a staggering 12 victories. 2014 champion Hannah Percy led the way with six wins, including three in four races. It also claimed its record-extending fourth Spa GP as Kellan Rogers-Ashby finally shed the "bridesmaid" label en route to her first victory in the prestigious event.

2017
2017 was not as kind to MAM as 2016 was, though it did manage to secure five race wins. Young Scotswoman Emily Brannagan took over the No. 56 car for Hannah Percy, who left the team to race in the United States for her husband's team, and promptly recorded her first victory at the Croft Circuit. Juniors driver Céilí Fitzgerald also claimed her first victory during the Croft weekend. Rogers-Ashby led the team in wins with three.

Trivia

 * As with predecessor team Matthews Motorsports, the MAM car numbers tend to have a 6 in them. The only exception is in NAAC, where Taylor Matthews drives the 11, which was her older brother's number in Master Cup.
 * Many of the full-time car numbers MAM used in Dash Cup have a significance to the driver who uses it:
 * 06 - the number Ryan Matthews uses in his TM Master Cup efforts
 * 26 - the inverse of the number Carter Fitzgerald used in FARC (62)
 * 56 - the number Hannah Percy's husband Ben Atkins used in his 2012 Independent's Trophy campaign for Atlantic
 * 90 - the number Kellan Rogers-Ashby made her TM Master Cup debut in (the non-points 2014 Karjala Grand Prix Consolation Race); was chosen because 90 is 06 upside-down