Professional race car driver Chris Atkinson has officially joined the CarExpert team as a shareholder in the business, and as our Performance Editor.
The former World Rally Championship driver and current World Rallycross competitor will become an integral part of the CarExpert team, bringing a new skillset to the way we test performance cars.
Atko, as we tend to call him, has been a friend to the CarExpert team for some time and his integration into the editorial team will allow us to create a reliable and repeatable measurement system, testing performance cars around Queensland Raceway to create a leaderboard of lap times.
In addition to a lap time, Atko will also provide detailed written and eventually video reviews of these cars from a pure performance perspective, giving insights into the car’s trackability and general performance credentials.
For those who didn’t have Subaru WRX rally posters on their walls growing up, here’s a brief summary of Chris Atkinson’s stellar and continuing racing career.
Chris has been racing professionally for the past 18 years, starting his career with famed Japanese legend Monster Tajima racing for Suzuki in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
He then went on to race in the World Rally Championship for Subaru, Hyundai and Citroen, achieving podium finishes in events such as the Monte Carlo Rally and Finland.
Chris has won 41 stages across every racing surface and has the ability to adapt quickly to different cars and changing conditions. He was two-time WRC Champion Petter Solberg’s teammate at Subaru World Rally Team until 2008.
Outside of rally, he has competed in the Nurburgring 24hrs, Bathurst 12hr (finishing 2nd) and several other circuit racing events.
For the past four years he has been competing in the USA for Subaru Motorsports USA in the Rallycross series, finishing second in the championship in 2019 with two wins.
We have been in a rally car with Atko and can tell you there was a lot of screaming and swearing. We needed multiple changes of underwear afterwards, but apart from that he’s also actually a really nice guy.
Apart from being a nice guy, the reason we’re so grateful to have Atko on board is mainly that rally drivers rely a lot on feedback and trust, and don’t necessarily need everything in a car to be perfect to achieve a good lap time.
Chris’s diverse background in racing will give us a balanced perspective of a car’s performance, and allows him to offer advice on how to get the most out of your car.
From all of us at CarExpert, we very much welcome Chris Atkinson to the team. You can find him on Instagram and Facebook.
