Subaru's
Chris Atkinson is hoping to try and build up his speed on the Rally Catalunya, which begins this Friday.
The Aussie has limited experience on asphalt and while he was just outside the points in Spain last year, this will be only his second time on the event. As such like in Monte Carlo, he is again aiming to take it cautiously and bring the Impreza to the finish.
"It goes back to the ideas we had in Monte Carlo. I think we have to come back a bit and reassess our targets," he told
Crash.net Radio last week, when asked about his aims for Spain and Corsica.
"It would be nice to finish in the points, similar to what we did in Monte Carlo, but it is still a learning thing for us. We have only done a few tarmac rallies now. The pace is getting better and hopefully we can keep improving that pace and the consistency as well, then the results will get better. They are still big learning events for us and the experienced tarmac guys are going to go a lot faster. So we will just try and build up."
Atkinson, who took part in the Rally Ireland recently, finishing fourth overall and first in the Group N category, took in that event as it was also on asphalt and that experience is something that should help him this weekend.
"Ireland was a really, really good event for us to do, a lot of mixed conditions - rain, mud, gravel on the road, as well as tricky tarmac conditions. So everything for us to learn was there and they are the sort of things I lack on tarmac, that sort of experience, it was perfect for me," he added. "To win the Group N and be up there with the WRC cars shows the pace was not too bad either. We were consistent over the weekend as well and made no mistakes and got a good result. Hopefully we can do the same on the other tarmac rallies."
Atkinson meanwhile echoed those sentiments in the SWRT's official pre-event preview.
"Last year we had a solid event in Spain and we showed a fast pace considering our level of asphalt experience at the time. Competing in Rally Ireland has massively increased our understanding of driving on an asphalt surface, especially of driving in the wet. This will help our performance particularly if we encounter similar weather in Spain. I hope to continue to improve in this rally," he concluded.
