Atkinson aims for Australia WRC comeback

[shamcharanjit]

Chris Atkinson wants to return to the world championship starting with his home event, Rally Australia, in September

Atkinson, a podium finisher with the now defunct Subaru World Rally Team, last competed in the WRC aboard a privateer Citroen C4 in Ireland back in January 2009.

Since then he has been a regular in the Asia Pacific championship, where he was a winner in Malaysia earlier this season at the wheel of a Proton Satria Neo Super 2000.

He is holding talks with Citroen, Ford and MINI about a drive on the Coffs Harbour-based event from 8-11 September as he looks to increase his tally of 67 world starts.

Atkinson managed five podiums during his stint in the WRC with second-place finishes in Mexico and Argentina for Subaru in 2008 the highlights. Despite his lack of recent running in the world championship, Atkinson is hopeful his experience of driving Super 2000 machinery - which possess similar handling characteristics to World Rally Cars - plus the fact that this year’s Rally Australia is using an all-new route, will prevent him from being an also ran on the gravel round.

Atkinson’s hopes received a boost when MINI WRC Team principal David Richards admitted he would be keen on having the Australian in one of his cars if the Prodrive-run squad added a seventh event to its existing schedule.

[Bharat]

ooooo, thats great, i really wish it was telecasted here also ya, they barely show it any more