Atko becomes first international to win Whangarei
Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Chris Atkinson has become the first international driver to win the International Rally of Whangarei, taking victory in the two-day event by 12.4 seconds over Kiwi and fellow international rallying star Hayden Paddon.
With overall victory on both days, Atko secured a maximum points haul from the New Zealand round, which sees the 31-year-old skip to the top of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship standings for drivers’.
After 301.9 muddy kilometres of competition, the rally’s outright and APRC honours went to Atko as he secured his third APRC event win this season in the PROTON Satria Neo S2000 – from just four events!
Adding to his victories in New Caledonia and Malaysia its becoming a dominate year for the Bega-native as he searches for the 2011 APRC crown with just two rounds remaining in Japan and China respectively.
This weekend’s event saw Atko annihilate the APRC field with 13 stage wins from 16 contested, including a dominate display today with stage wins on all eight tests.
With 76 cars entered, covering both the APRC and Clubman sections, Atko proved to be the man to beat from the outset despite coming up against some extremely tough local and international talent.
With a second place APRC finish to teammate Alistair McRae, the team now holds a dominated lead in the Manufacturers standings and one-two in the Drivers’ with Atko highly perched in top spot.
The next APRC event takes Atko back to Japan for Rally of Hokkaido where he has fond memories after scoring a WRC podium here with his former Subaru WRT.
Words from a winning Atko:
“Obviously to get the overall win as well as the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship points is fantastic. It was good fun having a fight with Hayden. Our car was awesome today and I didn’t take any massive risks, but I definitely pushed hard all day to keep him behind me. Obviously he’s a fast driver and very quick on these roads and we had to do our very best to hold him off. These are hands down some of the best stages in the world, they are so much fun to drive especially behind the wheel of the PROTON S2000. I’m looking forward to Japan at the end of September and another strong event for the team. They have done a fantastic job this weekend to get both Al and myself home in first and second APRC and that’s a positive sign for the remainder of the season and beyond.”
