MOTORSPORT: Chris Atkinson's Christmas cheer

He may be the forgotten man of the World Rally Championship, but Australia’s Chris Atkinson is still an international gun.

Three weeks after his 37th birthday, Atkinson has just won the Shanxi Rally in China, with fellow Aussie Dale Moscatt as his co-driver.

It’s eight years now since Atkinson’s days as a full-time WRC driver came to an end when Subaru folded its factory team in the global financial crisis. There have been sporadic outings in the world championship since (in Citroens, a Ford Fiesta, a MINI and a Hyundai i20) but nothing permanent, despite a career record of 41 stage wins and six podiums in 77 events -- the majority of them as teammate to 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.

Atkinson has quietly competed in China in recent times, last year helping the FAW-VW Rally Team win both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles (with only Chinese drivers eligible for the drivers’ championship it was Chen Dean, mentored by Atkinson, who was honoured).

‘Atko’ had had his sights on rallycross too for some time, and was interested in a drive in the WorldRX this year, but it was to be in America’s Global Rallycross Championship that he made his debut in that discipline – with Subaru Rally Team USA in a 600-horrsepower WRX STI.

In just the final three rounds of the US comp he showed himself to be the best driver the team had had in that series, achieving its best result of the season (sixth place in Seattle) as well as its first pole position, at the final event in Los Angeles.

But Atkinson has continued rallying in China, winning the first round of the country’s latest championship in June at Dengfeng.

And today, on Moscatt’s Facebook page, came word of the latest triumph.

“This fantastic Shanxi Rally win has come from another faultless drive from Chris and as always a top notch effort from the team at Prodrive to keep this Golf 7 SCRC on top through the rocky mountains up here in China,” Moscatt posted.

“Be rude not to celebrate with some circle work.”

Over the weekend Moscatt had posted that they were “happy to be leading after a good solid first”, but added: “Bit of a surprise to find the organisers had sent in machines and graded the entire route clear of snow. Nice thought but obviously conditions were completely different to the recce so Atko (as always) did a great job adapting.”

Skoda in 2017 for Rally Oz winner Mikkelsen?
Plenty still up in the air regarding the WRC field next year.

Since we mentioned here last Friday that last month’s Rally Australia victor Andreas Mikkelsen was without a confirmed drive for next season, veteran rallying correspondent Martin Holmes has reported today that “it will be back to [a Skoda] Fabia R5” for the Norwegian”.

Mikkelsen was third in the championship this year behind Volkswagen teammate Sebastien Ogier and Hyundai’s Belgian driver Thierry Neuville.

The Skoda will not be a frontline drive for Mikkelsen, with Hyundai, Citroen, Toyota and M-Sport Ford being the main manufacturer teams next year. Although the Czech brand is part of the Volkswagen group, its chief Bernhard Maier has said it has no plans to run a top-flight WRC entry and it most certainly won’t field re-bodied versions of the VW Polo Rs that had been developed for next year.

Mikkelsen and Welshman Elfyn Evans earlier were being linked to a two-car Ford Fiesta team supported by DMACK tyres.

In the wake of the shock close of VW’s team that has dominated the WRC the past four years, Ogier has joined the M-Sport team alongside Estonian star Ott Tanak.

However, Holmes – in his regular ‘Weekend Rally News’ update for Australia’s rallysportmag.com.au today that “an initial list has been released for the Monte Carlo Rally”, only a month away on January 19-22, but that “no entries for M-Sport were shown”.

Mads Osberg, the other Norwegian whose future has been looking uncertain after spending this season at M-Sport, has posted on Facebook: “I can confirm that I have a drive in the 2017 WRC in a 2017 spec car. I plan to drive most of the WRC events, but I also have ambitions to drive selected rallies outside the WRC. There are still some details remaining before I can present you with the complete programme for next year.”

Talk of the scrapped 2017 VW Polo Rs being fielded by well-connected Qatari sometime-WRC driver but marathon rally specialist Nasser Al-Attiyah, a two-time Dakar winner, has gone quiet.

Oil-rich Qatar is one of the largest shareholders in Volkswagen.

VW’s executive in charge of motorsport, Wolfgang Durheimer, had said that the group would be happy to see the cars compete as long it did not incur any of the cost.

Durheimer had said that crew members of the disbanded VW team could be sub-contracted to the right privateer team.

Meanwhile, Audi – another of the many brands in the VW group – has announced Dieter Gass, 53, as the successor to Wolfgang Ullrich, 66, as its motorsport boss.

While Audi has withdrawn from the World Endurance Championship after 13 victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans under Ullrich, it will continue in Formula E, the international electric open-wheeler series, and the DTM, the German touring car championship.

Gass was with Audi for several years before spending a decade in Formula 1, after which he rejoined Audi in 2012.

Summer roads lead Leeds to New Zealand
Australia’s Red Bull junior open-wheeler driver Luis Leeds is to contest the five-week, five-round Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand.

Leeds, still only 16, was third in the British Formula 4 Championship this year with three wins and podiums. He will use the Toyota series (starting at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch on January 14-15) as preparation for Formula Renault 2.0 racing in Europe next year where he will drive for the German team, Josef Kaufmann.

In NZ Leeds will drive for multi Toyota series champion team, Giles Motorsport, run by Kiwi Steve Giles, who was chief mechanic at McLaren to Mika Hakkinen in his 1999 and 2000 F1 world titles seasons.

The Toyota series cars have Tatuss chassis powered by 1.8-litre engines running on E85 fuel, Michelin tyres and the same gearbox, suspension and brakes (as the Renault 2.0).

English teenage sensation Lando Norris, who won the Toyota series last summer and this year’s Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and Northern Europe Championship with Kaufmann, is returning to NZ seeking another title.

Norris, 17, this month won a McLaren F1 test drive at the Autosport awards in Britain.

Only one NASCAR for Richard Petty Motorsports
The last team for which Marcos Ambrose raced in NASCAR, Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM), will field only one car next season – a Ford Fusion for Aric Almirola, who was Ambrose’s teammate in his last three years in the US.

Almirola and RPM’s other Sprint Cup driver this year, rookie Brian Scott, each registered only one top 10 finish in the 36-race series, ending up 26th and 31st on the points table.

Scott retired at the end of the season to spend more time with his family and RPM has decided to lease on of its two charters (the equivalent of Racing Entitlement Contracts (RECs) in Australia’s Supercars) for 2017.

A charter can be loaned out once every five years but must be returned or sold at the end of the season. A chartered team could have its franchise revoked if it finishes in the bottom three of the standings for chartered teams in three consecutive years.

“A concentrated effort on a one-car team will position us for improvement while giving us adequate time to re-establish our two-car team in 2018,” RPM chief executive Brian Moffitt said.

It’s a far cry from the days of King Richard Petty winning a record 200 Cup races and seven titles, the latter a feat since equalled only by the late Dale Earnhardt and this year Jimmie Johnson.

In 2010 RPM campaigned four full-time cars and in 2011 two, for Almirola and AJ Allmendinger, who was replaced in 2012 by Ambrose, with the Aussie winning two Cup races at the famous Watkins Glen road course for the team.

Sam Hornish Junior, a three-time IndyCar open-wheeler champion and 2006 Indianapolis 500 victor but a flop in NASCAR, initially replaced Ambrose on his return to Australia.

Another Ford team already had downsized for next year. Roush Fenway Racing, which ran five full-time cars from 2003-10, will field only Ricky Stenhouse Junior and Trevor Bayne next year.

However, Stewart-Haas Racing – co-owned by recently-retired triple champion driver Tony Stewart and F1 team owner Gene Haas – is switching from Chevrolet to Ford for its four 2017 entries (Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Danica Patrick and Stewart replacement, Clint Bowyer).