Subaru WRC

[twitch]

Another bad result for the SWRT at the weekend.

I have been surprised at the season so far, I expected Subaru, being one of few factory teams in it to clean up this year. The car seems fast enough but Petter's luck is unreal. They still seem to have the brake cooling problem which has been around for as long as I can remember!

Also, I don’t think Atkinson is the right man for the job. He’s to wild – He should be a rally-cross driver

I see a JWRC co-driver lost his life at the weekend too. Sad news.

Do we have any WRC/rally fans here?

[urabus]

I am a huge wrc fan. I work in results each year at Rally Australia.

There is a fair amount of jealousy towards atkinson in rally circles in aus. There are a lot of rumours around (that no one will confirm) and one must wonder how much longer he will keep the seat for.

He is certainly not liked by subaru rally team aus and watching the two teams next to each other in the pits is quite childish and comical. Calling each other traitors etc.

The unsubstantiated story goes that Chris's dad rang prodrive and said that he wanted a group n car that would beat subaru rally team aus (srta). (who have won the aust title for the last 3000 years) Cost was not an issue. Chris rocked up at the first round and handed them all a lesson. Then got disqualified for having a non homoligated turbo etc.

Anyway he did very well in the season including fifth outright at 2004 rally aus but did not win the title. This went to Cody Crocker from SRTA. For rally aus he had ditched his brother as co driver and picked one of srta's drivers to sit in the silly seat (glenn macneil). This just escalated the tension between the two teams.

Anyway the rumours continue that he had to pay (a la F1) for his seat last year. I have not heard the rumours for this year but with all the great drivers on offer with peugoet and citroen pulling out one would find it hard to imagine chris being in a particularly strong bargainnig position unless he brought big $ to the table. As I say this is all pit rumour and nothing is substantiated however it does have a certain ring of truth to it.

Cheers