DRIVER PROFILE

Chris Atkinson (born 30 November 1979 in Bega, New South Wales, Australia) is a professional rally driver in the World Rally Championship. He has driven for the Subaru World Rally Team since the 2005 season. His best finish on an individual WRC event is second, which he achieved at the 2008 Rally México and Rally Argentina. Other podium placings include third place finishes at the 2005 Rally Japan and the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.

Early career
Prior to his motorsport career, Atkinson pursued a career as a stockbroker. He graduated at Bond University in commerce, in 2000. After years of attending rallies as a spectator, Atkinson was a co-driver for his brother Ben. Shortly, the pair swapped positions, scoring a class win and third overall. Currently, his brother Ben Atkinson is a co-driver for Cody Crocker in APRC.
For his first full season of competition, Atkinson contested the Australian Rally Championship aboard a privately-entered Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, finishing inside the top ten in Group N and in the overall top 20 on every round he contested, as well as setting two second-fastest stage times. The Atkinsons finished ninth outright to become Privateer Champions. This performance brought Atkinson to the attention of Suzuki, who offered him the opportunity to drive one of its Super 1600 Ignis models with the Suzuki Sport team in the 2003 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.
Atkinson rewarded the team with a class win in the opening round of the championship in Canberra. Next came a second place in New Zealand, a second in Japan and two wins in Thailand and India, culminating in Atkinson winning the Super 1600 title. He finished fifth in the overall championship, ahead of many more powerful, four-wheel-drive, turbo-charged cars.

WRC career
Atkinson’s first world rally was the 2004 Rally New Zealand in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. For 2005, he was signed by Subaru World Rally Team to drive the Subaru Impreza WRC alongside 2003 world champion Petter Solberg. He finished 12th overall in the drivers’ world championship with 13 points. His best results were third in Japan and fourth in Australia.
After finishing the 2006 season tenth overall in the drivers championship with 20 points and a fourth place as his best finish, Subaru told Atkinson that his job was on the line, and if he couldn’t balance his speed with safety and achieve quality results he would be replaced by another driver.
At the start of the 2007 season Atkinson finished fourth at the 2007 Rally Monte Carlo, recording three stage wins. On the final day of the rally, Atkinson was 0.8 seconds behind fourth place man Mikko Hirvonen and had to beat him in the super special stage, a 2.4 km run through Monaco which uses part of the world famous Formula One course. Hirvonen set a time of 1:50.9 meaning that Atkinson had to at least set a time of 1:50.1 to beat him, but Atkinson did better and took the stage win with a time of 1:49.9. Hirvonen was the first person over to Atkinson to congratulate him.
At the 2007 Rally Finland, Atkinson posted the fastest time on the short opening super special stage on a horse-racing course at Killeri, to lead the rally for a short time. Atkinson finished the 2007 season seventh overall in the drivers’ world championship.
At the beginning of the 2008 season, Atkinson took third place in Monte Carlo; while at the 2008 Corona Rally Mexico, Atkinson managed second, 30 seconds ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala. He finished the season fifth in the drivers’ standings, and for the first time, outscored hitherto team leader Solberg.
After Subaru’s season-ending announcement of its withdrawal from the WRC, Atkinson signed for the new Citroën Junior Team for the 2009 season. In his first rally for the team in Ireland, he produced a strong showing to finish fifth, despite colliding with a telegraph pole during the first day, and suffering a spin on SS18. However, this was his only rally of the year where he scored points, as he did not compete in another rally again during the season.
In 2010 Chris Joined Malaysian motor company, Proton, teaming up with Stephane Pervot, Alister Macrae and Bill Hayes to compete in the Asia-Pacific rally championship. Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson are considered as the strongest pairing for the APRC season for 2010. Their wealth of experience in more than 45 rounds of rally championships and many stage wins has made the Proton team a force to be reckoned with even though it is the teams first season back in Rally since 2004.
The team was consistently running in the top 10 positions while racing against more established Manufacturer Teams such as Peugeot, Skoda, Abarth, Subaru, Mitsubishi, etc.
The Malaysian Rally has been Chris’ most successful Asia-Pacific Rally in the 2010 calendar so far. Chris secured fourth place, taking 15 points from the rally. Chris also took 7 bonus points in the Queensland rally, however, after having an otherwise very successful drive Chris was unable to finish the race, due to engine complications.
Prior to the Queensland Rally Chris said “The priority for us has to be to land some big Asia Pacific [Rally Championship] points, that’s the first objective. I think we saw on the last round just how much potential the car has got and, after three weeks’ of solid hard work from the team back in the UK, I expect we will be able to unlock some more of that potential.”
After 4 rounds in the Asia Pacific Rally championships Chris is eighth in the driver standings. Along with the help of fellow teammates Chris has helped the Proton team secure 60 points in the championship so far.
Atkinson contested one IRC event this year and is scheduled to contest the MSA RAC Rally of Scotland in October. His first ever IRC outing took he and co-driver Pervot to the GEKO Ypres Rally in June but unfortunately the pair retired after day one with engine issues on stage 4 after setting fantastic times on the opening few tests. In preparation for this event however, the Aussie competed in the Rallye de la Haute Senne where he finished a well earned 2nd to Belgium driver Patrick Snijers in his far more powerful Peugeot 207 S2000.

Career in brief:

• 2002 – Winner, Australian Privateers Cup
• 2003 – Winner, Asia Pacific Super 1600 Championship
• 2004 – Second, Australian Rally Championship
• 2004 – Winner, Asia Pacific Super 1600 Championship
• 2005 – 12th, World Rally Championship
• 2006 – 10th, World Rally Championship
• 2007 – 7th, World Rally Championship
• 2008 – 5th, World Rally Championship
• 2009 – 14th, World Rally Championship

Notable Achievements:

• 2003 Champion of the FIA Asia-Pacific Super 1600
• 2004 Champion of the FIA Asia-Pacific Super 1600
• 2005 Rally Japan – 3rd Overall
• 2008 Rally Monte Carlo – 3rd Overall
• 2008 Rally Mexico – 2nd Overall
• Number of World Rally Championship events competed: 67
• Number of World Rally Championship stage wins : 40
• Number of World Rally Championship points scoring finishes: 32