MOTORSPORT: Atkinson on Asian route back into rallying

H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler -- the long-time but now former promoter of the big speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the heart of NASCAR country -- is mentoring Ambrose and says that, while he is a potential winner, his problem is pitstop performance. More on that below.

Atkinson is now 30 and has been out of a full-time drive for almost 18 months, since Subaru folded its world rally team, but is set to make his return with Malaysian manufacturer Proton.

It's in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, in which he won the Super 1600 category before his World Rally Championship days in a work Suzuki Ignis.

This time he's in a Super 2000 -- 2.0-litre, normally aspirated, all-wheel drive -- Proton Satria Neo, prepared by Britain's Mellors Elliot Motorsport (MEM). His teammate is Perth-based Scotsman Colin McRae, brother of the late world champion Colin McRae.

Alister McRae is a former British rally champion with plenty of international experience and together with Atkinson gives Proton a strong driver line-up.

Australia's Cody Crocker, winner of a combined seven Asia Pacific and Australian championships in as many years, is absent from the field this year.

Australia's round of the series is on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and Mary Valley on July 30-August 1, while other rounds will be in Japan, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Indonesia and China.

Atkinson had 67 WRC starts, earned points in 32 of them and won 40 stages in four years.

He's one of the unluckiest drivers in motorsport to have been out of a regular drive for such a time. His last major start was a one-off with Citroen's junior WRC team early last year.

"I'm coming back with one of the few manufacturer seats available in the sport," Atkinson said. "I'm sure I can still drive a rally car quickly.

"I'm going to be competing in a great car with a great manufacturer, which is fantastic for me and (Belgian co-driver) Stephane Prevot.

"It's a fantastic opportunity to drive the next generation of rally car. It's a good championship with a lot of competition.

"I'm looking forward to working with Proton and with Alister.

Proton and MEM won the Production Car World Rally Championship in 2002 with the Pert model and Malaysian Karamjit Singh driving. The next year the same combination won the Asia Pacific Championship.

The Proton Satria Neo made its sporting debut in the middle of last year and McRae finished second in it at the Rally of Scotland.

McRae and his co-driver Bill Hayes, also of Perth, will be doing some rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge this year -- and there is a chance Atkinson and Prevot may as well.

"That would be a bonus -- especially to rack up some tarmac miles in an S2000 car," Atkinson said.

There is even a prospect of an outing in the new S-WRC class later in the year.

Atkinson told Motorsport eNews recently of the difference he had found between S2000 and WRC cars.

"It's all about keeping the revs up and keeping the car flowing through the corners -- that's just like the S1600 car was," Atkinson said. "That's totally different to a World Rally Car, because the WRC car has so much torque and so much grip.

"The Proton S2000 platform is exactly the base that the new WRC cars will be developed from, so some extra miles will be a massive bonus.

"Hopefully we will see some new manufacturers come into the sport when the new regulations come in and, who knows, maybe even Proton, so some seat time in a car of this nature will be very, very important."

Atkinson is hopeful that the Asia Pacific title is within reach this year.

"This is the first time in the APRC that S2000 cars have really come up against the Group N (production turbocharged four-wheel-drives) cars, so it will depend a lot on how competitive we can be," he said.

"This first round in Malaysia might be hard, because it's quite slow, and that will suit the Group N cars. I've never done Malaysia or Indonesia. But on the faster rallies, like NZ and Japan, we should be able to be every bit as quick as the Group N cars.

"Queensland will be perfect for the S2000 car -- it's really fast, flowing and narrow."

Should be a lot to look forward to in following Atkinson's return.

Ambrose mentor says pitstops his Achilles heel
"Humpy" Wheeler has been described -- by Texas Motor Speedway promoter Eddie Gossage -- as having been as important as the France family, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Senior in making NASCAR what it is -- enormous in the US.

"We wouldn't be a major sport without Humpy Wheeler," Gossage says of the Charlotte promoter who bowed out of that role two years ago.

He formed The Wheeler Company and has written a book, Growing Up NASCAR: Racing's Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All, which is selling like hot cakes in NASCARland.

We discovered this week that The Wheeler Company is mentoring three up-and-coming NASCAR drivers, including Aussie Marcos Ambrose.

And here's what Wheeler had to say about Ambrose: "He's the Dale Earnhardt of Australia, and people down there love him.

"People here (the US) just haven't seen him in the kind of equipment, say, Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart has.

"When he gets that, you're going to see a guy win a bunch of races. He's a much better driver than where he's finishing.

"If you've watched the races, he's passing probably as many cars as anybody on the race track. He's just having very slow pitstops.

"That's not his fault. But right now if you'd ask Jimmie Johnson or one of the other leading drivers who they'd least rather have on their rear bumper, they'd probably tell you it would be Marcos, because he's driving extremely hard.

"When you see him finish 11th like he did at Martinsville, if he had the pitstops he'd probably be second or third.

"I think Marcos has at least four or five really good years in front of him. He's got a tremendous amount of experience under his belt from winning the Supercar Championship twice in Australia. And also the years he spent racing in Europe.

"There's some great racing in Europe, we just don't hear about it here (US).

"Unlike some of the drivers that have come in here from foreign countries, most of them have gotten their experience in lightweight cars, whereas Marcos primarily has been driving heavier cars.

"The Supercar Series in Australia, while it's primarily road courses, basically is the same as a (Sprint) Cup car. So he's used to handling the heavy cars, and knowing how to slow them down.

"I think he's poised to win a lot of races."

Ambrose was 18th in the Sprint Cup at the end of his first season full-time in NASCAR's premier series last year, with four top five finishes -- two on road courses and two on ovals.

This season he is only 28th after eight races in his Toyota -- entered by JTG Daugherty under the Michael Waltrip Racing umbrella. He has been classified 41st, 35th, 14th, 11th, 33rd, 11th, 11th again and 17th in those eight races.

Ambrose told Auto Action magazine in an interview published this week that this season had been "underwhelming".

"We've had car speed that's been plenty good enough to run well inside the top 10, but we're just not quite getting there," Ambrose said. "The small stuff now is what makes all the difference -- a second in pitlane; making a call to go to (change) two tyres, not four, at the right time.

"We're just not getting it together yet. It's not about car speed anymore. It's about piecing together the race and having the right strategy and a bit of luck."

This week's NASCAR round is at the Talladega superspeedway in Alabama, of which Ambrose says: "I've been able to finish in the top five there ... I've also been right in the middle of two spectacular crashes."

The right strategy, slick pitstops and a bit of luck might get Ambrose on the right course there this time.

Champion of the past four years Jimmie Johnson in a Chevrolet leads Matt Kenseth in a Ford by 108 points in the championship.

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