Subaru Impreza 2007 News

Alfa Romeo stepped up straight after the Peugeot unveiling of a woman, I mean a car. A 207 apparently.

After a nervous wait, the Queenslander was given the green light to resume with Subaru in 2007 and is now eyeing a top five result in his Impreza WRC 2006.It will be his second outing in the event. Last year Atkinson and co-driver Glenn Macneall had a dramatic debut, with the pair forced to retire on the first Leg after ripping a rear wheel off on a rock.Atkinson is clearly relieved his immediate future has been resolved and he can concentrate on finishing the season with a clear mind."It's certainly a good feeling knowing that we are here with a clear path ahead for the rest of this season and throughout 2007," Atkinson said."It is a clear vote of confidence by the team in what we have achieved across the past two seasons and what they think we can do in the future."My mind is now free just to focus on the immediate, and that is doing our very best in Turkey."No doubt it's going to be another difficult weekend as it's a tricky rally with very varied conditions," he said."Last time we had rain, hard-packed roads, some loose stuff, slow bits and flat-out sections."This year I'm expecting a bit of everything and changing conditions again. It's a fairly entertaining rally."Coming so soon after Cyprus I think it's going to be a difficult rally, too."In Cyprus we weren't expecting a fantastic result, we were realistic about our chances, and that's what we got."But this week I'm hoping to keep things more consistent and just hang in there. Going at the same pace we were running at in Cyprus I think a top-five finish is possible - we'll just have to wait and see," Atkinson said.Since Rally Cyprus on September 22-24, Atkinson and Macneall have spent three days in Sicily doing development work on the Impreza.Subaru World Rally sporting director Luis Moya is hopeful that the work put in by the team since the mid-season break will start to show."In Turkey the main objective for (lead driver) Petter (Solberg), Chris and the team is to put both cars in the top six," Moya said."That said, of course we'll do our best to get a better result if the opportunity is there.""Since the last rally our engineering team has continued its work on the car's performance and we have held a five-day development test in Sicily."We're making steady progress and are doing everything possible to get the team fully competitive again as soon as possible."Rally Turkey will again be based in the town of Kemer, 40km south of the holiday resort of Antalya.AAP