Atko fought through rain and mud for the team’s most encouraging results of the year at the Seattle round of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship.
Atko and teammate David Higgins fought near the top of the field throughout the event, earning a 2nd and 3rd place finish in their semi-final events respectively and a 6th and 9th place finish in the hotly contested final.
The Gold Coaster shined in the pivotal semi-final where he battled defending GRC Champion Scott Speed for 2nd overall throughout the race. Drama unfolded as Atkinson braked to enter the joker lap Speed hit the rear of Atkinson’s Subaru hard, damaging his exhaust and nearly spinning him around.
Atko kept his cool and was able to finish in 2nd position, promoting him directly to the final. Starting from the front row of the final he had an uncharacteristically poor start and bogged off the line. Atkinson found himself at the back of the pack but battled through the field to earn 6th overall. Being only his second ever Rallycross event, this was an impressive effort by Atkinson.
“We had a bad start (in the final) but we fought back and got P6 from dead last so it was ok!,” explained Atkinson. “We can take some real positives from this weekend; P2 in a semi-final and on the front row in the final. We know we are in the mix now and we are closing the gap to the front, we have a lot of work still to do but we can see the results now of all the work the team has been doing.”
Subaru Rally Team USA will continue on to the final Red Bull GRC round of 2016, a double header race weekend October 8-10 at the Port of San Pedro in metro Los Angeles, CA.
