Round-4
Atkinson leads Queensland after 2 stages
31 Jul 2010 by Brian Young
Proton driver Chris Atkinson leads Rally Queensland by 0.3 of a second after two stages with MRF's Gaurav Gill in second.
Series leader Katsu Taguchi from Japan is third, 3.3 seconds further back.
For more infor: http://www.rallyresults.com.au/arc/2010/qld/showStaget.asp?rVal=7227¶mVal1=1¶mVal2=2¶mVal3=1
APRC Teams prepare for Rally Queensland
30 Jul 2010 by Event Release
OVERSEAS and Australian rally crews are under way with final preparations for the start of the International Rally of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast tonight.
Leading drivers and co-drivers contesting round four of the 2010 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship and round five of the Australian Rally Championship will take part in a private shakedown session this morning to tune their cars’ set-up for the event’s first two competitive stages at the Coates Hire Rally Shootout at Caloundra tonight.
Others were due to leave at first light to complete reconnaissance of the 16 
forestry gravel stages around the town of Imbil, an hour’s drive north-west of rally headquarters at the ocean-front SurfAir at Marcoola Beach resort.
The aftermath of two days’ rain in the Mary Valley resulted in very slippery roads and some delays when many in the 82-car field attempted their reconnaissance yesterday.
“It’s pretty greasy out there. I hope the roads have a day to dry out before we go back up there on Saturday,” Proton R3 Malaysia factory team star Chris Atkinson said as he returned from the forests last night.
Atkinson, seeded second in the Asia Pacific round, will join the shakedown this morning with teammate Alister McRae, championship leader Katsu Taguchi from Japan and his Indian MRF teammate Guarav Gill, both in Mitsubishis, Rifat Sungkar, Atsushi Masumura from Japan, New Zealand’s Brian Green, Jean-Louis Leyraud from New Caledonia and three Australian wildcards.
Victorian Simon Evans, hoping to clinch his fourth Australian Rally Championship this weekend, and top local driver Ryan Smart also will be in the shakedown line-up.
For further information, contact:
Chris Nixon
Media Manager
Mob.: (0418) 759 417
Email: media@rallyqueensland.com.au
Web: www.rallyqueensland.com.au, aprc.tv, rally.com.au
Reeves aiming for Pirelli Star Driver award
29 Jul 2010 by Written by Carolyn Schonafinger
The Reeves Race Team of Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth return to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast this weekend to compete in round 4 of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), the International Rally of Queensland.
The event also serves as round 2 of the Pacific Cup, a three-event series made up of APRC rallies in New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia. Reeves and Smyth took maximum points in the Pacific Cup at last month’s Rally Whangarei in New Zealand and are aiming to repeat their success this weekend.
Reeves is no stranger to Rally Queensland – he finished third outright in the 2007 event and last year clinched the title of Australia’s Pirelli Star Driver after a dominating run over the rally’s two days.
With his experience from last year, Reeves is hoping for another strong performance this weekend, with the Pirelli Star Driver title again his main goal. After a great result in New Zealand’s round of the APRC, another solid result in Queensland will really help the 21 year-old’s aspirations of becoming the Asia Pacific representative in the lucrative Pirelli Star Driver competition. Winners of each region’s PSD will head to Europe later in the year for a Global Qualifying Shootout, with the best six then receiving a place in Pirelli’s Rally Academy and the chance to contest selected international events in the 2011 season.
Rally Queensland has attracted a huge field of 83 entrants and Reeves and Smyth are looking forward to taking on the best crews from the Asia Pacific region. With a strong field entered, Reeves will face fierce competition from former World Rally Championship drivers Chris Atkinson and Alister McRae, who will both be driving Proton Satria S2000s, and the MRF Rally Team drivers, Katsu Taguchi and Gaurav Gill, both in Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xs.
“We had a great battle with Alister in New Zealand and managed to beat him by just half a second overall,” Reeves said. “Unfortunately for Chris, he suffered mechanical problems last time out, so he’ll be hoping for better luck this time. The MRF guys were also very quick in New Zealand, so hopefully it will be a great battle between all of us this weekend.”
Reeves will drive his Subaru WRX STI in this weekend’s event after driving a leased Subaru at Rally Whangarei and he is looking forward to getting back out on the gravel and putting the car through its paces.
Rally Queensland gets underway on Friday evening, July 30, with a Super Special stage in Caloundra and crews then head to the forests around Imbil for the real rally competition on Saturday and Sunday.
Follow the progress of Reeves Race Team over the weekend at www.brendanreeves.com.au
Atkinson wins Helicopter Race
28 Jul 2010 by Brian Young
Chris Atkinson got his weekend off to a great start by winning outright the "Rally car versus Helicopter Race' held this morning at the Sunshine Coast airport.Closed for an hour, the airport coordinated a race between a Proton S2000 car and a
Robinson R44 and while it was extremely close on both occasions Atkinson was able to cross the line a few metres ahead of the helicopter."It was a great way to start our event and I hope we can make it three wins in row, by winning Rally Queensland this weekend" said an elated Atkinson after the race.
Proton prepare for Rally Queensland
27 Jul 2010 by Team Release
The PROTON R3 Rally Team is gearing up for what's likely to be one of the biggest weekend's of the season, when native Queenslander Chris Atkinson, Australia's fastest and most successful rally driver, takes on all-comers in Malaysia's fastest rally car: the Satria Neo S2000 on next week's International Rally of Queensland.
And, as if that wasn't enough for Australian rally fans to get excited about, PROTON's other driver, 
Alister McRae also hails from those shores these days. McRae might be Scottish born, but he now lives in Perth, Western Australia. The scene is set for PROTON to enjoy what's locally known as a 'ripper' of a weekend.
The stunning PROTON Satria Neo S2000s which are competing on this year's Asia Pacific Rally Championship haven't been quiet for long. Since McRae finished second APRC runner on the International Rally of Whangarei at 
the start of the month, the rally cars have been shipped from New Zealand to Australia while the team members flew back around the world to embark on an exhausting test schedule. The test Satria has been around the team's test track in Britain countless times, clocking up in excess of 1,000 kilometres while developing the car ahead of the fourth round of the series.
The International Rally of 
Queensland takes place just north of Brisbane on Australia's east coast. The event's rally headquarters are beachside overlooking the stunning Coral Sea, but the main event takes place just inland, based around the town of Imbil. It's on the forest roads surrounding the service park in Imbil that the event will be won and lost. Fortunately for PROTON, Atkinson, who lives south of the rally's base in Gold Coast, knows a thing or two about this event having won it in the past.
Having demonstrated the huge potential of both himself and the Satria Neo S2000, by setting fastest times in the APRC, since signing for PROTON at the start of the season, Atkinson is keen to give his home fans plenty to cheer when he starts the first stage next Friday (July 30) night.
McRae needs no introductions in this part of the world, or indeed anywhere else on the planet. The former World Rally Championship star's speed is just as sharp as ever and, having come so close on two previous rounds, he too will be chasing a first APRC win of 2010.
The drivers are both in Australia and will test their Satria Neo 
S2000s, which have been fitted with upgrades since the last event, on Tuesday next week. They will then complete their reconnaissance run through the stages on Thursday, before a final shakedown test on Friday morning. Just a few hours after that and part four of PROTON's Asia Pacific Rally Championship adventure gets going.
Quotes:
Alister McRae said:
"My experience of competing at this sort of level in Australia is limited to the Perth-based Rally Australia, so I don't know too much about this event. Fortunately, my team-mate [Chris Atkinson] is a native Queenslander who has competed on this rally twice before - so I'm sure he's going to fill me in with all the details; although I'm taking everything he says with a pinch of salt: he told me the rally was just like Corsica! Seriously, though, you always know when you come to Australia for an event that it's going to be a great one. Rally Australia was always one of the best rounds of the world championship and I have no doubt Australia's APRC round will be just as well organised and well received, we all know how much Australians love their sport.
"There's a good feeling around the team ahead of this event. Since New Zealand, Chris [Mellors] and the team have been busy testing new engine and suspension components to iron out the gremlins which were there and, of course, we arrive in Australia on the back of finishing second in Asia Pacific Rally Championship standings last time out in New Zealand. What we're looking for this time around is to go one better and to end Sunday standing one step higher on the podium."
Chris Atkinson said:
"I'm really looking forward to competing at home again in Queensland next week, there's always something extra special; a buzz about being at home. I've won this rally before and I want to do that again next week. I haven't won anything for a while and it would be great for the team if we could pull the result together. I don't think competing at home necessarily puts more pressure on me, I put enough pressure on myself anyway: Queensland is my home event, but it's just another rally as far as I'm concerned and another rally I'm determined to do well on. 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 in Australia. The roads, from what I can remember, are very good. They're inland from the coast, so it could be pretty chilly in the morning, but they're in the forests. The trees are pretty close to the road, but it's a good, hard surface with plenty of grip around; providing it stays dry, that is. The one thing we know for sure is that it's going to be another big fight. As well as the APRC guys, there are going to be some quick local guys down there as well."
Chris Mellors (team principal) said:
"We've had a really busy time since returning from the last Asia Pacific Rally Championship round in New Zealand. We have been working non-stop on developing the car, which has meant driving the Satria Neo S2000 in excess of 1,000 testing kilometres. All of that time, the engineers have been replicating the conditions in which we have suffered failures: over-revving the engine on downshifts, sitting the engine on the rev limiter for long periods of time. Believe me, it hurts to do this kind of thing and it sounds horribly painful for the car, but the engine has withstood everything we could throw at it. But now it's time for the big test, the next event. We're all feeling confident in the progress we have made and we're feeling very happy about the next rally, not least because it's Chris's home event.
"Of course, going to a driver's home event does add some more pressure, but at the same time it's going to help us to have a driver who knows their way around. Queensland is not an event we or Alister [McRae] have done before, so Chris's knowledge of the rally, the surface, the type of stages and that kind of thing is going to help us tremendously."