MOTORSPORT: Subaru quits WRC - Atko in cold

Huge blow to rallying - especially the new Rally Oz
As new car sales continue to shrink at a rapid rate around the world, manufacturers are now slamming the brakes on motorsport activities -- with the most significant new development the shock announcement overnight of Subaru quitting the World Rally Championship.

The decision by Subaru's parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, leaves the career of Australia's WRC star Chris Atkinson up in the air after the best season of his career, in which he notched five podiums.

The pullout of Subaru, in particular, and Suzuki 24 hours earlier is also a huge blow for the revival of Australia's WRC round in northern NSW in just nine months' time.

As if resurrecting an international rally that ran in Western Australia for almost two decades, lastly in 2006, on the eastern seaboard was not fraught enough (and it's only going to be every two years anyway, on rotation with New Zealand's WRC round), the likely absence of an Australian front-line driver -- certainly in a factory entry -- will make the task so much harder.

V8 Supercar racing in Australia still seems to have been relatively immune to the massive spending cutbacks in other forms of motor racing around the globe.

Perhaps it was the forerunner of all that is now happening, with Craig Gore folding his V8 team on the eve of the '08 season, the demise of the Opes Prime financial business that had become a prominent sponsor, and more recently the dark clouds over Gore's support for an American open-wheeler team with Aussie Will Power in the cockpit.

The bleak future of General Motors and Ford in the US keeps those participating with the local large sedans of those manufacturers on tenterhooks. In the drag racing scene, which is not our normal beat here, the Jack Daniels Brett Stevens squad has suddenly curtailed its activities just weeks after airing huge plans for what was claimed to be the world's biggest drag team. Maybe as much to do with a licensing issue as finances.

Apart from the dire news from the WRC this week, Audi and Porsche have announced the end of their factory efforts in the American Le Mans Series.

The optimists there are pointing to Mazda's strengthened commitment to that series, and the entry of BMW and Corvette (from mid-year) in the GT2 category.

The irony, though, is that the dominant brand in ALMS in 2009 is now certain to be Acura -- which is part of the Honda stable, and it was Honda that started the round of motorsport withdrawals with its news 12 days ago that it will shut its F1 team if a buyer is not found by December 31.

While that F1 team will go for a song, and there must be a lot of serious interest in it for that very reason, mysteriously that situation has gone very quiet in the past week.

Perhaps the interested parties are so preoccupied there isn't time to utter a word about it.

Prodrive chief David Richards, perhaps with Kuwaiti money and maybe in league with existing team principal Nick Fry and wizard technical director Ross Brawn, must remain the favourite to pick up the Honda F1 operation.

Richards, essentially a rallying man although he has briefly run two grand prix teams in the past decade (and had an F1 franchise for this year until scuttled by opponents of "customer" cars), won't have anywhere near as much on his hands rally-wise in '09.

It has been his Prodrive that has run the Subaru World Rally Team which won six world titles and has champion drivers Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg.

It has not won even a single WRC round now for three years.

The long-awaited new Impreza was introduced at Greece's Acropolis Rally in May and, although originally encouraging with Solberg finishing second there, it was never a genuine challenger to Citroen or Ford for wins.

Of greatest concern to Australians will be Atkinson finding himself in no man's land after finishing fifth in this year's WRC. With a few ounces of luck he might have been fourth.

After Fuji Heavy Industries' decision in Japan 72 hours ago, a Subaru representative reportedly flew from the factory to the south of France to tell Monaco-based Atkinson and teammate Solberg the grim news face to face.

"I sort of knew something was going on, but I didn't expect this," Atkinson said. "Now we have to figure out where to go from here.

"Nothing's certain. To be honest it's all still a bit of a shock. Obviously it's disappointing -- we put in four years at Subaru trying our best at every rally.

"Now all I know is there's nothing more planned."

Atkinson knows he won't be competing at the '09 season opener in Ireland and beyond that is a vacuum.

"The team haven't spoken to me (about the future). Not a word. I guess that's just the way it is," Atkinson said.

Richards said the scratching of the blue cars from the '09 championship was "not only sad news for Subaru and the team, but also for millions of rallying fans around the world".

"Subaru is one of the sport's icons. Its absence will be felt by many the world over."

For the record, a fuller account of the pullout announcement by Subaru is here

And that from Suzuki, which was fifth in the last two rounds of the WRC in its first year in the championership proper, is here

New WRC technical regulations from 2010 that will usher in cheaper Super 2000 cars like the Toyotas that Neal Bates and Simon Evans drove in the Australian Rally Championship this year offer some hope for a rebuilding of the WRC, which next year has been left with factory teams from only Citroen and Ford.

At the minute 2010 seems an eternity away.

Subaru will still be represented in the WRC next season by independent Norwegian team Adapta, running two cars -- one for Mads Ostberg. The other driver has not been confirmed but surely will be Scandanavian.

Prodrive will have customer entrants to support next year and there is some talk of it fielding a two-car Subaru entry in the manufacturer teams' class.

This crisis is going to test the capacity, capabilities and passion of Richards.

Ever with an eye on the future, Richards has said the 2010 regs "provide Prodrive with an opportunity to prepare for re-entering the championship with a new team and build on its 24 years of WRC experience and success".

On the ALMS front, Porsche is pulling out of the Prototype 2 category, although it will continue to support the 911 GT3 RSR in GT2.

Its P2 withdrawal follows the announcement that Audi, the dominant Prototype 1 make, is out after the 12 Hours of Sebring in March.

The development of its new R15 sports car is now entirely for France's Le Mans 24-hour classic, where it will continue its diesel "Smackdown" with Peugeot.

Speculation continues that Audi's motorsport focus otherwise will be on IndyCar from 2011 -- where it would be challenging Honda's now monopoly engines.

While there may be private Audi and Porsche entries in the premier categories of ALMS, Honda's Acuras will be the favourites for honors in both P1 and P2.

Great news for Australia's David Brabham, who is entrenched in the Acura program.

Mazda has strengthened it commitment for '09, joining forces with Dyson Racing for a two-car P2 program.

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