MOTORSPORT: Aussie back in WRC – in a MINI

Leading the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in a Skoda, Atkinson – a full-time WRC driver in the days of Subaru’s factory team – has already driven a Ford for American Ken Block’s team at this year’s Rally Mexico and a Citroen DS3 at the recent Rally Finland.

Now he’s become the number one driver for factory-supported Team MINI Portugal, in place of Portuguese driver Armindo Araujo, for the remaining five rounds of the WRC, starting at Rally Germany on August 24-26.

That will be the 32-year-old Queenslander’s first drive in a MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

The other events will be in Britain, France, Italy and Spain.

“MINI has given me an awesome opportunity to return to the world championship and I’m stoked to be back as a lead driver for a great manufacturer and for the remainder of the 2012 season,” Atkinson said.

“I love the tarmac, so it’s great to know that three of the remaining five events are on the sealed surface.”

Eight-time world champion, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, had already said that Atkinson deserved to be back in the WRC full-time.

After Rally Finland, where Atkinson crashed into trees after a misunderstanding over a pace-note call, Loeb said: “It was good to see him. He did a good job and set some fast times.

“We didn’t expect him to find the speed so quickly.”

Deputising for Qatar’s Dakar Rally winner and medal-winning Olympic shooter Nasser Al-Attiyah, Atkinson had come close to Loeb’s winning time on the opening stage in Finland.

“This is not a surprise - we know how he can drive,” Loeb said.

Atkinson, who will continue to chase the APRC title with Indian team MRF after missing out to Perth-based Scot Alister McRae last year when they both drove Protons, said Rally Finland had “really got me fired up” to get back into the WRC.

“It’s the pinnacle and I’ve shown I deserved to be there,” he said.

“One slight brain fade cost us a good result, but I was happy with my speed after four years away [from regular WRC participation following Subaru’s pull-out].”

Meanwhile, Toyota’s new entry-level Yaris rally car – reported on here in June and July - will make its debut at Rally Germany, but only as the zero (official) car running over the course ahead of the field.

Toyota Motorsport president Yoshiaki Kinoshita said the TMG Yaris R1A would be “an affordable but exciting car which makes rallying’s major events accessible to a whole range of participants”.

“There is a huge appetite in the rally world for a new Toyota – I hope this is the start of a new rally dynasty at TMG”.

Meanwhile, this weekend’s rally action in Australia is Targa West in and around Perth, WA, with a field of almost 80 cars.

The Porsche GT2 RS of touring car and tarmac rally great Jim Richards and long-time co-driver Barry Oliver led after Thursday’s opening stages from West Australians Jamie Lister in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI and Peter Rullo in a Nissan GT-R.

Today’s eight stages are all in the Kalamunda Shire, with more competition throughout the weekend before the podium presentations in Plain St., East Perth, at 4pm on Sunday.

All Ambrose’s six victories in the US – two in the Cup, both at the Glen, and four earlier in the second-tier Nationwide Series – have been on road courses.

The Chase is for 12 drivers to fight out the final 10 Cup rounds for the title. The top 10 in points after 26 races automatically qualify, with two wildcards to the pair between 11th and 20th with the most wins (and then most points if there are drivers with the same number of wins).

Ambrose, 17th in the points driving a Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports, said this week: “We need to win another race to make the Chase.
“There’s no easier formula than if you’re not first, you’re last. That’s the way we’re approaching this weekend [at Michigan International

Speedway] and the next three [before the Chase dozen is decided].
“We have to go out there on full attack mode, really concentrating on car speed, being aggressive in our strategies, to try to get us that next win.”

At this season’s previous round at Michigan the Tasmanian dual V8 Supercar champion took the pole position at an average of more than 200mph (320kmh) and finished ninth – one of his six top 10 finishes this year.

In the race for the Chase wildcards Kasey Kahne has two wins and is 11th in the points, seemingly destined for one spot.

Four drivers other than Ambrose are between 11th and 20th with one win — Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano.

Newman, 13th on points, has the edge among them, with Busch is six points behind him and Gordon 10 points back. Ambrose trails Newman by 44 points and Logano is 57 back.

Carl Edwards, pipped by Tony Stewart for last year’s Cup crown, is 12th this season, six points ahead of Newman but without a race win.
Ambrose said: “We’re within striking distance, within earshot of making the Chase, but we need to make some strikes.

“Definitely winning at Watkins Glen helped us get some momentum and definitely gets us closer to where we want to be, but there’s a lot of work to be done yet.

“Our team has had a lot of really great runs this year, we’ve had a lot of speed … we’ve had trouble converting that speed into results.

“Small issues, mechanical problems, driver error, wrong strategy, you name it, we’ve done it. We have to stop all that.

“Our focus has to be being aggressive on our strategy, being aggressive with the car and me on the race track being aggressive, too, trying to get that next win.

“Without that we’re just going to be racing for 15th, 16th in the championship.

“That’s not what we’re after. We’re after more than that.

“Like every week in NASCAR, things are changing, things are moving. Just because you win a race last week doesn’t change anything we’re doing.

“We really have to keep applying ourselves and hopefully get it right at Michigan to take the pressure off at the last three races [before the Chase}.”

Ambrose’s crew chief Todd Parrott said the RPM team was “walking a little taller” after last weekend’s Watkins Glen success.

“Every guy here worked hard to make that car the best it could be and Marcos drove his tail off to get that win,” Parrott said.

“Now we just have to carry that momentum to the oval.”

Auto Action magazine reported that Betty Klimenko, backer of Australian GT Championship team Erebus Racing, may have been prepared to spend $20 million on a customer Mercedes program under the Car of the Future rules taking effect next year.

It claimed that “moves to resurrect it (the project) continue behind closed doors”.

AA also has quoted V8 Supercar series top gun Jamie Whincup as saying that, while the first Triple Eight CotF Holden Commodore he has tested is “overall fantastic”, the gear stick “is terrible … absolutely terrible … a big negative” and that the roll cage “needs to change”.

However, Triple Eight boss Roland Dane said the cage was unlikely to be altered.

Dane’s other star Craig Lowndes won’t be contesting the Australian Safari this year but is set to drive an Audi R8 in the GT Championship round at Phillip Island next month.

IndyCar ace Will Power has been confirmed as Mark Winterbottom’s Ford Performance Racing co-driver for the Gold Coast 600 in October.

Holden veteran Greg Murphy is confident of returning for the Sandown 500 in mid-September after his recent back surgery but won’t contest the first New Zealand V8 SuperTourer endurance race at Taupo on the first weekend of next month.

And NZ’s Business Day reported this week that MediaWorks, operator of the country’s TV3 network, had lost $5 million on its contract to televise V8 Supercars.

“TV3’s rights to the series have now lapsed and it is understood race organisers are pinning their hopes on selling them to [pay TV channel] Sky,” Business Day reported.

Meanwhile, no word on a new Australian television deal for V8 Supercars after chief executive David Malone told the Australian Financial Review two months ago he hoped negotiations would be wrapped up “by as close to the middle of the year as possible”.

Malone told the AFR he did not think the National Rugby League’s media rights talks would affect the timetable for the V8 discussions.
However, it is difficult to see a V8 deal being done before the NRL rights are sorted, which it has been reported now may not be until October.

Although all three commercial free-to-air networks supposedly have shown interest in telecasting V8 Supercars beyond this year, until a deal is done it is also unlikely that next year’s race calendar can be finalised and announced.