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Atkinson in the new car in Greece, picture courtesy of swrt.com

In the lead up to the Rally of Greece, Subaru launched the all new Impreza WRC2008.

The new car is based on the latest road going Subaru Impreza which was introduced in June 2007. Although featuring radically new styling the Impreza WRC2008 retains the well proven Subaru horizontally-opposed turbocharged engine combined with Symmetrical All Wheel Drive. The WRC2008 will also sport a dramatic new livery created around the Subaru corporate identity but at the same time preserving the iconic blue identity familiar to rally fans worldwide.

“We are very excited to be able to launch the all-new Impreza WRC2008 ahead of schedule” said David Richards, Subaru World Rally Team principal. “It is testament to the dedication and commitment of the team behind the scenes in the UK and at STI in Japan. Just as the latest Impreza road car represents a new era for Subaru so the WRC2008 represents a new era for all of us at the Subaru World Rally Team and I am confident that we will arrive in Greece able to fight competitively.”

The team’s objective has always been to launch the WRC2008 as soon as the testing confirmed that good steps forward in overall performance had been made. We are confident that introducing the car in Greece will enable the team to be highly competitive in the second half of the season and give Petter and Chris the best opportunity to win in 2008.

On the 55th running of the notoriously punishing Acropolis Rally, the all-new Subaru Impreza WRC2008 made its competitive debut today to great acclaim. On this real event of attrition, Petter Solberg and Phil Mills grabbed third place overall on the opening day, whilst team-mates Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot successfully completed their first competitive outing, and also Atkinson’s first ever rally aboard a brand new World Rally Car, lying within striking distance of the front-runners.

The Subaru World Rally Team is not one to shy away from a challenge, demonstrated this weekend by the decision to launch their newest World Rally Car on the most unforgiving event of the season, and ahead of schedule. Introduced to the World Rally Championship on Wednesday evening to worldwide media and VIPs, both Imprezas successfully completed the first day of their debut event on what is largely regarded as the most punishing rally on the calendar, and under the watchful eyes of the world’s press.

"Ok, we have finished the first day which is very important” reflected Chris Atkinson. “It’s good to be in the new car, and we know we still have some work to do. We damaged a control arm in the afternoon on the roughest stage of the day which lost us some time. We knew bringing it in early would be tough, and we need to find a bit more, but that’s what we came here to learn, and we are learning.”

press release courtesy of marcosambrose.com

Marcos Ambrose is confident his team made big inroads on its way to 14th place in the Carquest 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina today.

The Australian driver showed strong pace and while running a conservative strategy to ensure he came home with a solid haul of points towards his 2008 championship campaign, Ambrose’s pace was clear and he ran well on the leap lap all day at the 1.5-mile speedway.

Ambrose jumped one spot in the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings after today’s result, now sitting 14th in the championship after 13 of 35 races.

Ambrose qualified 19th in the #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion, which ran a special livery this weekend in support of Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, in conjunction with Kingsford and Rite-Aid.

Ambrose ran a car livery and helmet paintjob designed by a patient of Levine Children’s Hospital. The helmet will now be auctioned off by JTG Racing, with all proceeds benefiting Levine Children’s Hospital.

During the month of April, Kingsford donated $0.25 to Children’s Miracle Network for every purchase of Kingsford, Match Light or Kingsford Lighter Fluid products at any Rite Aid store in the United States.

Marcos Ambrose - #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion

It was a really good night for us,” said Ambrose.

We’ve made big inroads here on the one-and-a-half-mile program and we had a really conservative race.

“It was good, really good. I was really proud of my guys and it shows that we’re making progress.

“We’re not just talking the talk, we’re actually starting to walk the walk a little bit. We’re much more competitive and we were racy all night.

“We just had a really conservative deal – major conservative. We didn’t really have a strategy apart from just being safe.

“We just wanted to keep working on our car, finish the race intact and then go from there.”

Mark Webber managed to stay out of trouble and despite having to switch to dry tyres to early, finished in a strong 4th place at the Monaco Grand Prix. It is his highest finish of the season and takes his point tally to 15. With David Coulthard crashing out Webber still is the only one of the 2 drivers to score points this season.

With his points Red Bull finds itself tied in 5th with Williams in the constructors championship.

“That was good, a great result which gives us a lot of points. It wasn’t the most exciting race in the world in terms of racing, but it was very difficult early on in the wet conditions and we were aqua-planning at Casino. It was definitely over the edge for the intermediate tyres for a few laps when it was raining hard, but then it started to dry and we had to think about changing tyres. It would have been good to have had a little bit more fuel as we had to change to dry tyres maybe five laps earlier than we would have liked. It wasn’t ideal, but the team did such a good job, both at the track and at the factory in Milton Keynes, it’s great to get a strong result.”

In his Indy 500 debut Will Power managed to finish 1o places higher than he started and finished on the lead lap. The strong showing made him the highest placed aussie with countryman Ryan Briscoe crashing out.

Power, who was making his first start on a super-speedway oval, started in the middle of Row #8 in the 23rd position. He spent the first three quarters of the 200-lap event calmly and patiently continuing to learn the nuances of ovals, especially big oval racing, which began to produce results starting just prior to his last stop. Power was running in 15th place when he pitted for the last time on lap 171. After an outstanding stop by his Aussie Vineyards crew he rejoined the contest in 11th quickly moving into 10th, but his car developed some overseer and went loose dropping him back to 13th on the where he remained until the end of the race.

“It was a good race and I am really happy with the way it went,” Power said. “Aussie Vineyards – Team Australia kept creeping up the leader board the whole race, but the car was becoming pretty loose at the end. I was able to hang on and finish the race which was key, but it was mentally draining. It was a good result because I was able to get a lot of experience and I am relieved to get have gotten through my first Indy 500.”

In an incident that both drivers will feel the other is the cause of, Danica Patrick and Ryan Briscoe have come together in the pits and ended both their races on the spot.

Briscoe had been running a solid if not spectacular 500 up to that point and was back in the top ten.

“From what I can see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around and there are people pointing fingers, but that's not the way we are,” Briscoe said. “We both have a brake pedal in our cars, and from what I can tell, there was still plenty of room for her to get around me. I was trying to get around (Dan) Wheldon, and I was staying in the middle lane. I got ran up in the back, and it's a shame."

The race was won by Pole sitter Scott Dixon from New Zealand and was his first Indy 500 win for the former series champion.

Well one of the highlight weekends of motorsport lies ahead this weekend.

In Formula 1 we have the Monaco Grand Prix, for many the highlight of the season and the one every driver wants to win. Whilst in the IRL we have the world famous Indy 500.

For Aussies we have three drivers taking part, including Ryan Briscoe on the front row at Indy. With Team Penske behind him Briscoe is a genuine chance and has shown pace throughout the month of May at the circuit.

Speaking in the lead he talked about where the team is at “Helio likes to compare our situation to the one he faced when he first came on board with Team Penske and Gil de Ferran was his teammate,” Briscoe says. “The ages are the same, the situations are similar. Now he’s playing the role of Gil, and I’m playing the role of Helio. Except I’m not Helio, and I never will be. He’s made that clear on more than one occasion.”  

What they share is the same joy and playfulness that Castroneves and de Ferran shared, along with a serious approach to their craft. What Briscoe and Castroneves hope to find in the similarities is the enormous success Team Penske encountered at Indianapolis during the Gil/Helio tenure. Castroneves won the 500 in 2001 and 2002, while de Ferran won it in 2003.  

“We’re going to see some great racing between the two of us, but there’s always a great amount of respect,” Briscoe says. “We are a team, and we work as a team on the track.”  

Like de Ferran, Castroneves likes to keep the mood light, especially when the focus and the work moves away from the racetrack. He instills that notion in his new teammate, trying to maintain Briscoe’s smile and his mood.  

“He really made me feel welcome on the team,” Briscoe says. “He’s always in a good mood, and he always wants people around him to be happy. His philosophy is that people can’t be productive if they’re too serious, and in many ways, he’s right. He’s never made it difficult for me in any way, and that’s really good. He’s openly complimentary, which helps my confidence. A lot of times in racing, your teammate is your biggest rival, but we’ve got a close and open relationship. That’s a big bonus for the entire team.”

Joining him on the grid will be Will Power starting from 23rd place. Power has shown pace also at various times but a large crash in practice seems to have had an effect. He spoke after final practice of where the team were heading into the race.

It was a really productive day,” Power said.  “Even with these windy conditions we had a really good setup and ran close behind cars comfortably.  We were able to do plenty of miles and the Aussie Vineyards – Team Australia car felt good over the whole run, so the KVRT team have done a really good job with the #8 car.  We definitely have a good race pace, but it’s just unfortunate we are going to be starting a little bit further back than where we need to be.”

Meanwhile in Formula 1 Mark Webber will look to continue his great season with more points at Moanco. He no doubt will be boosted by the news that his boss Christian Horner this week said he was in the form of his career. Not bad when you have just opened discussions on a new contract, or at least Mark tells us he has.

On that front things may be a bit tense with his teammate David Coulthard. Coulthard in a regular column for ITV has questioned why Webber would go public at this time of the season about his contract. He was of the view it may be in part to remind some other teams that he is in fact out of contract at the end of the season, as much as getting the ball rolling with Red Bull.

“Speaking of career moves, my team-mate Mark Webber told the media over the Istanbul weekend that he has opened talks with Red Bull to extend his contract. If I try to rationalise why Mark would say that, I can only presume it was either to stimulate talks with the team or to stimulate interest in the rest of the paddock, reminding people that he’s on the market.

When you think about it logically, you do your private negotiations in private and then when you’ve reached an agreement you make an announcement. You don’t normally say, ‘Er, I’m about to enter negotiations…’

So I would conclude that it was a positioning tactic rather than anything else.”

Either way Webber right now is in an ideal place to get a new contract with Red Bull or indeed start talks with other teams. Looking at the grid though I am not sure there would be many seats for Mark given his age. Perhaps Renault and a return to Williams but both would be long shoots in my view.

So make sure your TV is working and your set up to record what hopefully is some great racing this weekend. Lets hope with see some great results for the Aussies and who knows even get to hear the national anthem!

Chris Atkinson battled home in 6th place in a disappointing rally of Sardinia for the Subaru Rally team.

After a solid first day the rally came apart for both drivers on day 2 and Atkinson had an uneventful last day to bring the car home in 6th place.

“OK, it’s good to get more points and to still be third in the championship, but it’s definitely not been an easy weekend” said Chris Atkinson. “I drove the best I could and made no mistakes, and that’s it.”

With Subaru’s all-new Impreza WRC2008 on the horizon, drivers and the team alike are eagerly awaiting its first public appearance.

Will Power posted a average lap speed of 221.136 mph to take 23rd on the grid for the Indy 500. He was 12th fastest on the day, with Townsend Bell posting the fastest time on the day with an average lap speed of 222.539 mph.

Will Power posted a stunning 4th fastest time in the last full practice, before attempting to qualify Saturday for the Indy 500.

The downside was that he crashed 45 minutes into the session and did not return to the track. At the time of the crash he was sitting second with an average lap speed of 223.039 mph. The team were working on the car late into the night, in an effort to make sure he can run in Qualifying Saturday.

"Obviously this is a setback for the team because of the track time we're going to lose," Power said. "But I know the team will do what needs to be done and we will be ready to qualify tomorrow."

Hot on our recent article on Formula One Safety, the issue of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) has again been thrown into the spotlight. It seems that the GPDA is going through a rough time right now. Recently Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alsono and Mark Webber has spoken out about the issue by criticising those drivers not in the association. Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are not members of the GPDA. Also Force India’s Adrian Sutil is not a member.

"There are some drivers who couldn't care less but they take advantage of the work done by others," Trulli told Autosprint. "What these sensationally uninterested drivers don't understand is that the GPDA has a price. We fund it with a fee on the points scored.

"If the top six drivers are the uninterested ones, then there's a lack of money to survive and it's always the unlucky ones, the ones who get paid less, that have to sustain the costs. The figures are little. The entry fee was one thousand dollars, now it's probably one thousand euros, then you pay something like two hundred dollars per point scored.

"But what I don't understand is that you might not want to be part of the GPDA, then you can do what you want, but at least pay the money since you go on track too.”

"I'm not saying they should get involved, I'm saying as a grand prix driver you should be sensible about safety because you are driving," said Trulli.

"It's you getting in the car and going fast so the GPDA is only there not to do any politics. Any time we sit in a room, we discuss privately anything which we have in common – which is racing and safety.

"Apparently, there are some people who do not care about it – but they get the benefit anyway. And what is really concerning me and all the GPDA drivers is at the moment more and more drivers are pulling out of GPDA for no particular reason. But they are getting the benefit of all the work we are still doing.

Trulli expressed his frustration in the interview that the drivers who choose not to be part of the association simply don't understand how important the work it does is.

"The most outrageous thing is that a top driver doesn't give a damn about his safety," he added. "For me, that's unacceptable. Even drivers that were part of the association and left pretend not to understand, and don't read what we do.

"If it wasn't for the GPDA, and for Riccardo Ceccarelli of Formula Medicine, then if one of these guys had an accident during winter testing he would have risked his life. The minimum safety requirements were lacking yet they don't care and leave the association, this means they are truly insane."

Lewis Hamilton however again confirmed at the Turkish Grand Prix that he has no current intentions of joining the association. In addition he does not intend paying any fees to the association.

"I won't go on about whether I'm joining or not because you guys know the deal," he told reporters when asked about the GPDA situation.

"We spoke about it plenty of times, but they've not approached me and asked me if I want to support them. But in all honesty it's like asking you (the media) to pay for our driver salaries, or that sort of thing.

"I don't understand why I need to. I pay for my racing licence, which goes towards the FIA safety regulations. So I don't understand why I need to be paying more."

This lead to the great safety campaigner Sir Jackie Stewart to observe “I think this is one area where Lewis might be feeling he is a bit special,” the triple champion said, “and that is wrong. He should be part of the GPDA.”

Mark Webber indicated that the association remains very interested in having Hamilton involved. "He will be very welcome any day to come along and just flick a couple of views around," he said. "It is good to have someone at the front of the grid in the quick car, to be helping us out and taking the sport forward, because he is the future of the sport.

"Someone like Kimi (Raikkonen), we know he is not interested and that is fine. And some guys in the past were not interested but they paid their way because they knew every single lap they did, whether testing or racing, there were GPDA people saving them."

Felipe Massa has recently rescinded his membership of the GPDA. "I didn't always like the way it was run," the Ferrari driver told the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

However fellow countryman Rubens Barrichello was not impressed "It is a personal decision," the Honda veteran told Spanish newspaper Diario AS in Istanbul, "but it's not good for the rest of us.

"If the association wants to be a strong influence on the FIA, it is very important to have the Ferrari drivers on-board. If we have the 20 guys of the grid discussing these things, then every situation is possible."

All of this lead to Fernando Alonso also coming out saying he could not understand the drivers who did not want to be part of the association. Given the GPDA is really the main vehicle for the drivers to raise safety fears.

"It is true there are drivers not in the GPDA, which is their own decision, but in my opinion it is not good," said Alonso, when asked by autosport.com about the situation regarding GPDA. "As I have said another time, everyone can choose what they want - but it is difficult to understand how drivers don't want to be involved in an association of drivers that want to save our lives when we are racing.

"The accident that Kovalainen had last week, we will work on it with the FIA very closely, we will make some proposals and at the end we will find a solution. And these type of accidents will not be repeated. So drivers who don't want to be involved with that, it makes no sense."

Richard Woods, Director General of the FIA Institute, told the Independant newspaper that there has always been genuine interest in working with the drivers, and that this has frequently been the case.

“There’s a constant dialogue between the drivers and the FIA and they are welcome to attend the key safety research meetings where all the detailed work is done. The GPDA has regularly sent speakers and delegates to FIA Institute events such as this season’s medical summit in Bahrain and Sid (Watkins) and Gerard Saillant (FIA Institute President and Deputy President) value these contributions greatly.

Here at OzRacingWrap we would have to say we agree with Trulli, Webber and Alonso. It is staggering to us that any driver would view the association as optional. In fact we think further the FIA should make it a condition of being sanctioned to drive in Formula 1 that a driver must firstly pay the fee and secondly be a member of the association.

For those drivers who feel the association does not achieve anything, we have only look to the recent Turkish Grand Prix. In the support GP2 race a stray dog wondered onto the track and was collected by Bruno Senna. The GPDA immediately became involved with track officials to agree a work around of the problem. If there was no GPDA it would be much harder to get agreement, However the appropriate officials of the GPDA were able to be contacted and a solution found to allow the Grand Prix to go ahead.

Perhaps it has been to long since the last death in Formula 1 and some of the younger drivers are starting to take safety for granted. We can only hope that such a attitude will not come back to bite them. Motor sport will always be dangerous and the search for safety must be ongoing. What is safe today may not be tomorrow, as the cars find ever increasing speed.

Image Atkinson during the Sardinia shakedown courtesy of swrt.com

With his team mate holding third, Chris Atkinson has had a solid start to the Rally of Sardinia.

Atkinson and Prévot made a strong start to the event, finishing the first three stages of the morning sharing third overall with Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen. Solberg and Mills meanwhile lay fifth. Having made some changes to their car during the midday service, the Norwegian traded position with his team mate in an afternoon of change, snatching third position as Atkinson slipped to fifth with Hirvonen splitting the SWRT crews. The Australian remains within reach of the podium still, promising to keep this battle fuelled into the longest day of competition tomorrow.

Yeah, it’s not been a bad day today” echoed Chris Atkinson. “It’s good to get through the day with no problems though as it’s been tough. The guys behind are going well and are fast, so we’ll have to pick it up a bit tomorrow to stay in the fight. It’s a close battle for third, and there are a few people quite close who will join the fight tomorrow so it’ll be hard, that’s for sure. I hope we can find a bit more to stay in the top five, but it’s not a bad start.”

Will Power posted the 6th fastest time in practice Thursday as the teams get ready for the second qualifying say Saturday. Power averaged 222.657 behind Ryan Briscoe who topped the sheets with a average lap speed of 223.708.

It was nice to get some dry track time today in the KVRT Aussie Vineyards – Team Australia car,” Power said.  “Everyone thought it would rain today, but fortunately it never came.  We were able to get through a few test items, did one qualifying run and a couple of long runs which were interesting.  But all in all, we are still at a similar pace as before.  We are making slow progress, but I think now we really need to focus on the race setup.   I think that is the most critical for us if we are going to finish well in this race.”