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Geoffrey Harris5 Mar 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Aussie's Mexican stand-on-it

Hyundai is playing catch-up in the WRC against the VWs, Citroens and Fords – but Chris Atkinson may help it make progress with its i20s over the next few days

In a decade as Australia’s top rally driver Chris Atkinson has piloted – on local, Asia-Pacific and world stages – Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Subaru, Citroen, MINI, Ford, Proton and Skoda cars, and now he belts up in a ninth brand – Hyundai.

Atkinson, 34, returns to the World Rally Championship this week in Mexico, driving an i20 for Hyundai’s factory team revived after a decade out of the sport and on a steep learning curve. He’s been a tester and developer for the Korean manufacturer since the middle of last year and is rotating in the driver’s seat of its second WRC entry with Spaniard Dani Sordo and Finn Juho Hanninen.

Hyundai’s No. 1 driver is 25-year-old Belgian rising star Thierry Neuville.

Rally Guanajuato Mexico is round three of the WRC and the first of a string of events on gravel – Atkinson’s specialty. He’s also slotted for Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour, NSW, in mid-September, with other drives possible.

It was in Mexico six years ago that the Queenslander (although born in Bega, NSW) turned in his best WRC performance, finishing second with Subaru’s factory team, which folded at the end of that season (when Atkinson wound up fifth), as the global financial crisis hit.

He also was second in Argentina in that 2008 season among six podiums in a 75-event WRC career that unfortunately has been stop-start since the Subaru days, when he often upstaged colorful Norwegian 2003 world champion Petter “Hollywood” Solberg.

While his WRC outings have been sporadic since then, a highlight for Atkinson in recent years was winning the 2012 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in a Skoda Fabia. Earlier successes included the 2002 Australian Privateers Cup and 2003 and ’04 Asia-Pacific Super 1600 Championships and he was second in the 2004 Australian Rally Championship.

Driving for Hyundai is a chance for Atkinson to excel in a team without a WRC drivers’ championship point from the first two rounds and only eight manufacturer points, compared with Volkswagen’s 72 (plus another 26 from its secondary team), Citroen’s 56 and the 22 of Ford’s M-Sport associate.

The i20s made a rapid but inglorious debut on the Monte Carlo Rally, with Neuville crashing on the first stage and Sordo out with a battery problem on stage five. In Sweden last month Neuville and Hanninen made it to the finish courtesy of regulations that allowed them to resume after hitting rocks.

VW has won both rounds so far and its Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala, victor in Sweden, leads its reigning world champion and Monte Carlo victor, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, 40 points to 35.

Atkinson’s long-time co-driver is Belgian veteran Stephane Prevost, 10 years his senior and with 157 WRC events under his belt.

The thin air and altitudes up to 2700 metres in the Mexican rally will deplete engine power and, along with high temperatures and dust, make for special challenges. The event has four particularly long stages of 43, 44, 54 and 56 kms.

It starts tomorrow (Thursday) with a ceremony in Guanajuato in the country’s north-central region, followed by a special stage through the city’s tunnels and cobbled roads. The route then covers the Sierra de Lobos around the city of Leon, which is the rally headquarters.

“I have had several good results in Mexico [in six previous starts], so I have some great memories of this rally and the fans in Mexico,” Atkinson said. “It is a unique rally with the high altitude and the varied terrain, which makes it a great challenge for the drivers and the cars.

“Being in good physical shape is very important in Mexico. I did some training in the middle of the day during the Australian summer when it was 35 degrees and I’ve also done some exercise in the sauna to be as prepared as possible.

“It’s important to get to the finish with no problems. If we can do that we will get a good result.

“Being the first gravel rally of the year it will be interesting to see how well the i20 WRC performs in these conditions.”

Hyundai team principal Michel Nandan said the team was “doing our learning in a very public manner”.

Neuville scored his maiden WRC podium in Mexico last year.

“The main challenges in Mexico are the high altitude, which means the engine loses power and you need to carry more speed into the corners, and the high temperatures, which make it demanding for us drivers from a physical point of view,” Neuville said.

“For us it will be very important to finish the event untroubled and give as much feedback as possible to the team to continue our development process.”

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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