WCAR Formula Atlantic 1987
West of the Rockies, Stefan Petroff Industries (SPI) sponsored, organised and competed in the SPI Formula Atlantic Championship. Ken Baca and Stuart Miller were charged with promoting the series and delivered $500,000 of prize money from SPI for the 1987 season. SPI also ran a pair of cars for Parker Johnstone and Jon Beekhuis. The title race was won convincingly by Johnny O'Connell, who had moved into Atlantic after a disappointing season Formula Super Vee, but only after a strong challenge from former ski racer Dean Hall. O'Connell reinforced his reputation with a dominant win over ECAR champion Calvin Fish at St Petersberg in November. Hall was straight out of Formula Ford and his strong challenge for the title marked him as a future star in the category.
After the end of the 1987 season, SPI pulled out, leaving Paul Cava and Tim Fortner to organised a West Coast Formula Atlantic series for 1988 through their Cava-Fortner Sports Management Inc . As before, the series was sanctioned by the SCCA.
RK Smith's win in the Swift DB4 at Portland in September 1987 was not only the first ever Pro win by an American car in this category of racing, but was the first by anything other than a Ralt or a March since 1978 and the first by a car not built in England since Brian Nelson had won at Sebring in October 1970 in a Crosslé built in Northern Ireland.
The races
03 May 1987 > Laguna Seca
17 May 1987 > Firebird International Raceway
31 May 1987 > Sears Point
13 Jun 1987 > Portland International Raceways
05 Jul 1987 > Spokane
02 Aug 1987 > Sears Point
09 Aug 1987 > Tacoma
23 Aug 1987 > Westwood
13 Sep 1987 > Portland International Raceways
10 Oct 1987 > Laguna Seca
01 Nov 1987 > SCCA/SPI International Formula Atlantic Championship at Memphis Motorsports Park
WCAR SPI Formula Atlantic Championship events shown in bold
1987 WCAR SPI Formula Atlantic Championship table
| 1 | Johnny O'Connell | Ralt RT4/86 - Ford BDD Jennings | 141 pts | 4 wins |
| 2 | Dean Hall | Ralt RT4/86 - Ford BDD Hasselgren | 128 pts | 4 wins |
| 3 | Parker Johnstone | Ralt RT4/87 - Ford BDD Jennings | 110 pts | |
| 4 | Jon Beekhuis | Ralt RT4/87 - Ford BDD Jennings | 101 pts | |
| 5 | Ted Prappas | Ralt RT4/86 - Ford BDD Jennings | 96 pts | |
| 6 | Jeff Krosnoff | Ralt RT4/85 - Ford BDD Jennings Ralt RT4/86 - Ford BDD Jennings | 54 pts | |
| 7 | Chris Bender | Ralt RT4/83 - Ford BDD Jennings Ralt RT4/86 - Ford BDD Jennings | 52 pts | |
| 8 | Sandy Dells | Ralt RT4/83 - Ford BDD Jennings | 52 pts | |
| 9 | Dan Marvin | Ralt RT4/83 - Ford BDD Hasselgren | 50 pts | |
| 10 | Jimmy Santos | Ralt RT4/83 - Ford BDD Hasselgren | 50 pts |
Points table from Sports Car Jan 1988 p52.
In 1987, three different categories were competing to be the main route to CART. Of these, Formula Atlantic remained the most junior, with Autosport's Dan Layton estimating that a budget needed to be successful in Formula Atlantic was about half that needed for Formula Super Vee or ARS.