Chris Atkinson will be competing for Team MRF in the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship 2012. Chris is not new to APRC as he won the Asia Pacific Super 1600 Championships in 2003 and 2004. Following his success in Super 1600, Atkinson was selected to represent the Subaru World Rally Team from 2005 to 2009 in a Subaru Impreza. His best WRC Championship ranking was 5th overall in 2008. His best position in the highly competitive WRC was second place in Rally Mexico in 2008. He competed in 67 World Rally Championship rounds, with 40 stage wins.
Chris Atkinson
A formidable driver, Chris has strangely never won an Australian or Asia Pacific Rally Championship title, although he was always dominating in most Championships and was let down by technical problems. In 2002 he won the Australian Privateers Cup and was second overall in the Australian Rally Championship in 2004.
MRF Team Management’s decision appears cautious and calculated as the Proton S-2000 is an improved car; and experienced Swedish driver Per-Gunnar Andersson, who is also competing in the APRC 2012, has already won the Swedish WRC in the S-2000 category. Chris, with an aggressive
attitude and a highly-rated professional with vast experience in the diverse terrain of the APRC, was the right choice for MRF’s quest for the title. Chris has also been driving the Proton S-2000 for the past two years and is looking forward getting into the proven Skoda Fabia S2000.
In APRC last year Chris was deprived of the title despite three convincing wins in Malaysia, New Caledonia and New Zealand but had mechanical failures on other events. Born in New South Wales, Australia, in 1979, Chris will focus on winning the APRC title in 2012; but so will his MRF team- mate Gaurav Gill. Chris’ co-driver is Stephane Prevot of Belgium and Gill’s navigator, Glenn Macneall of New Zealand. The first round of the APRC is scheduled later this month on March 30-April 1,2012 in Whangarei, New Zealand.