MOTORSPORT: A second coming for Chris Atkinson

However, Atkinson reportedly already has had talks with VW, which is developing its Polo R to take on long-time WRC manufacturer participants Citroen and Ford and relative newcomer MINI. The Queenslander is driving a Ford Fiesta RS in Mexico for YouTube and X-Games star Ken Block's Monster World Rally Team and is scheduled to compete in the rounds in New Zealand and Finland later in the season too.

Spanish rally legend Carlos Sainz, who is assisting VW with the Polo development, has said that, rather than an inexperienced youngster, the company wants a driver comparable with its French star Sebastien Ogier, formerly eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb's Citroen teammate and driving a Skoda this year while awaiting VW's debut.

A Subaru factory driver from 2005 until the Prodrive-run team representing the Japanese manufacturer folded at the end of 2008, Atkinson's only WRC outing since was in a Citroen on Rally Ireland in early 2009. The past two years he has driven a Super 2000 Proton Satria Neo in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and was a little unlucky not to win that series last year.

Ahead of Atkinson on the list of candidates for the VW seat are the Ford factory drivers, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala and Norway's 2003 world champion Petter Solberg -- both out of contract at the end of this year. And it is not hard to envisage that VW may like a German-speaking driver in its second car if it cannot snare either of that pair.

Auto Action magazine's international rallying correspondent Jerry Williams reports that WRC sources claim Latvala already has agreed terms with VW, although the Finn told him: "It's much too early to be talking about next year ... I am only thinking about this year."

Meanwhile, Mexico is the first gravel round of the WRC after the Monte Carlo and Swedish events. Atkinson has a good record in four starts in Mexico, including a second-place finish in 2008 -- ahead of Latvala. The Aussie is hopeful because his Fiesta will be the same spec as that which won in Sweden last month.

"It takes a little bit of time to get your head around the way the car moves on the turn in to corners, but the precision is very good and the grip is amazing," Atkinson said after a pre-event test. "I'm just not sure what to expect in terms of a result because the other guys are in and out of these (WRC) cars every other week."

The best possible result would be ideal with the prospect, however slight, of a VW factory drive in the offing.

A feature this time is the Tipo 500 that won Ferrari its first Formula One world title 60 years ago, driven by Alberto Ascari. Later it was bought by Australia's first F1 driver, Tony Gaze, who was briefly reunited with the car in Melbourne midweek on its way through to Phillip Island.

Gaze sold the car in 1956 to Lex Davison (grandfather of modern-day racers Will, Alex and James) and won the Australian Grand Prix the next two years (it was not an F1 event in those days) with it.

The Tipo 500 also will be at next week's Australian GP in Melbourne, the opening round of this year's F1 World Championship.

The most serious racing at Phillip Island will be for Formula 5000s, while Jim Richards will be driving the BMW 635 CSi in which he won the first of his four Australian touring car titles.

Tribute will be paid to Australian motor racing's most notable husband and wife, Fred and Christine Gibson. Fred won the 1967 Bathurst 500 for Ford, various other touring car races as a driver, and then -- as a team owner -- three national titles with Nissan and another with Holden.

Christine raced for Holden, Nissan and Alfa-Romeo, almost winning the 1975 2-litre title.

Australia's triple F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham, approaching his 86th birthday, and touring car champion and Bathurst winner John Bowe, now a star of the Touring Car Masters series, are among the many other prominent identities lined up for the Island.

And 40 Holden Torana XU-1s have been gathered to celebrate the 40th year since Peter Brock's first Bathurst victory -- the last 500-mile (800km) enduro at the mountain, and the last in which the drivers raced solo.

The Phillip Island Classic is sure to be a super weekend.

The Saturday audience was up strongly for the second year in a row. The average number of viewers in the five major state capitals for Seven's telecast that day was 510,000 -- 89,000 or 21.14 per cent more than the Saturday last year. The Saturday audience has improved 172,000 -- or more than 50 per cent -- since the low of 338,000 in 2010.

However, last Sunday's audience was down sharply on last year -- to 435,000 from 615,000, a drop of 180,000 or 29.26 per cent -- as the second Clipsal race clashed with the first international one-day cricket final on Nine, which drew an average 999,000 in the afternoon (and 1.285 million in the evening).

It was unfortunate for Ford that so many fewer saw Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom's one-two for the Blue Oval than Davison's last-lap loss to Holden's Jamie Whincup the previous day.

Sunday's TV result also more than reversed the big jump last year, when the 615,000 was up 139,000 on 2010. The combined five-capitals average for the two race days in Adelaide this year of 945,000 was only the fifth best -- or third worst -- in the past seven years.

It was 1.036 million last year, 814,000 in 2010, 1.128 million in '09, 1.069 million in '08, 1.250 million in '07 and 892,000 in '06.