Chris Atkinson (co-driver Stephane Prevot), driving a Skoda Fabia, recorded back-to-back victories at the Brother International-Rally of Whangarei, here on Sunday with a 28.1-second win over another Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) contender Per-Gunnar Andersson as the two-day event wrapped up.
Despite a near disaster in Stage 13 when he hit the bridge and damaged his suspension, Atkinson drove consistently well against a stiff opposition from Andersson (co-driver Emil Axelsson) on a Proton Satria New S2000.
Atkinson's overnight lead of almost one minute dropped to a mere 28 seconds when he finished the final stage.
Atkinson won in his and the car's first event with Team MRF of India. Atkinson had won the event last year in a Proton Satria Neo S2000, which is now driven by Andersson.
Atkinson's teammate, India's Gaurav Gill (co-driver Glenn Macneall), finished third overall. “It's been a great week-end. The team has been amazing. The car, the tyres, everything worked really well. It was always going to be tough being up against the factory Proton team, Atkinson said.
“The MRF team came along with a brand new car and we were on the pace straight out of the box and were able to control the rally, which is great.
Andersson had rallied on some of the roads used in this event when they were part of the Rally New Zealand, but this was his first run in Whangarei.
He said: “Chris has done a great job today after being first on the road, to have the pace he has. We've been trying to catch up as much as we could, but we couldn't do it just by driving. He had to make a mistake, have a puncture or something else.
Significant victory
Anthony Rodricks of the MRF said: “The victory was significant as MRF has never won an APRC rally in New Zealand before. What is more remarkable was for Race Torque, Australia, to put together the entire package in a short period of time.
“We did just one day's testing, with a strange car, the Skoda Fabia S2000 — even our Technical Team worked tirelessly to develop tyres that would adapt to the modified S2000 cars.
“Gill's performance was exceptional, as unlike Atkinson, who drove the Proton S2000s before, Gill had no S2000 experience at all.”
Overall results (top 5): 1. Chris Atkinson (co-driver Stephene Prevot) Team MRF; 2. Per-Gunnar Andersson (Proton), +28.1s; 3. Gaurav Gill (Glenn Macneall) Team MRF, +2:35.8s; 4. Alister McRae (Bill Hayes) Proton, +3:37.6s; 5. Matt Jansen (Jason Farmer) Subaru , +4:47.7s.
