Autoweek - January 23_ 2017 magazine-pdf.org

2017 RACING PREVIEW
Chris Atkinson
competes at Red Bull
Global Rallycross in
Monroe, Washington,
last September.
RED BULL CONTENT POOL; CHRIS CLARK; LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC
NEW CREW
FOR SUBARU
CHRIS ATKINSON
TAKES WORLD RALLY
EXPERIENCE TO GRC
BY ALANIS KING
THE 2016 RED BULL
Global Rallycross
season was an odd and unexpected
one for Subaru
Rally Team USA—and
that’s putting it mildly.
When the team unloaded
at GRC’s Seattle round late in
the season, they did so without
two of their longtime
drivers: Sverre Isachsen and
skateboarder Bucky Lasek,
who had been part of Subaru’s
lineup since 2012, the series’
second year in existence. Both
drivers had been replaced.
In their stead: David
Higgins and Chris Atkinson,
veterans of rallying—a discipline
that races on a course
covering miles of ground, not
an enclosed circuit as rallycross
does. Both drivers have
previously raced for Subaru.
Rob Weir, motorsports
marketing manager at Subaru
of America, said the midseason
replacements came partly in
response to a changing series.
“For just about any factory
motorsports effort, you’re continually
evaluating different
drivers who can bring different
skill sets,” Weir said. “We
went through a full shake-up
to improve our pace, looking
at things that clearly needed
improvement and rechecking
aspects of the program where
we knew we had strengths.”
Weir said the driver change
wasn’t as simple as it seemed
from the outside, but they
needed to do something to
compete with the likes of
GRC champion Scott Speed
and the powerful Volkswagen
Andretti Rallycross and Chip
Ganassi Racing teams.
“We all are close to our drivers,
so it’s never easy to call
for a change,” Weir said. “But
Higgins and Atkinson bring
patience and new, insightful
feedback about the cars to
our engineers. That made for
noticeable improvements in
pace and race strategy.”
Higgins came in with experience
in a Subaru rallycross
car, whereas former FIA World
Rally Championship driver
Atkinson had no prior rallycross
background. Coming
from roughly 300-hp rally cars,
Atkinson said the 600 horses
under the hood of a GRC car
“blew (him) away.”
“It didn’t take long to
adjust, but (the horsepower)
was very impressive the first
time I got on the gas hard,”
Atkinson said. “I still feel
I have a lot to learn, which
is exciting for me because
I know we can improve in
the races.”
Atkinson will have a lot
of time to improve—he’ll race
alongside Patrik Sandell for
the 2017 season. Sandell, a
former Bryan Herta Rallysport
GRC driver, will move
to Subaru’s program from a
Ford Fiesta ST rallycross car.
Higgins will team with
Travis Pastrana in 2017 for
stage rallying in the new
American Rally Association.
Weir said: “Shaking things
up in the Subaru program
pushed (the entire team). We
learned so much and walked
away with our first-ever pole
position at the final round of
the season, which proved we’re
taking our development strategies
in the right direction.” c
For more racing previews, including bold predictions and
preseason news, along with race coverage during the season, go
to autoweek.com/racing and follow us on Twitter @AutoweekUSA.
36 AUTOWEEK JANUARY 23, 2017