Proton’s APRC driver Chris Atkinson got his European campaign off to an excellent start with 2nd place on the Rallye de la Haute Senne as the team prepare for next weekends IRC Ypres Rally in Belgium.

Belgian rally hero Patrick Snijers won today’s Rallye de la Haute Senne, which was being used as the former European Rally Champion as a warm-up event for this week’s Ypres Rally.

Snjiers was followed home by former World Rally Championship driver Chris Atkinson, who continued to level his learning curve with the Proton Satria Neo S2000. The bottom step of the podium was taken by teenage Welshman Tom Cave, making his European competitive debut oin a semi-works Proton.

Alister McRae’s sister Satria to Atkinson stopped in the second loop of stages when he reported a mis-fire. The British-based team elected to stop the car rather than risk any damage to the motor ahead of Friday’s vital debut in this year’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Atkinson said: “We’ve had a good day today. There haven’t been any problems at all with the car. I did a test in Britain on Thursday, before we came out to Belgium – that was my first time on the Tarmac in the car – and I felt at home straight away. This has been the perfect way to settled the nerves and get myself ready for Ypres. It would have been nice to win, but I think that Patrik guy has been around here before!”

Source: www.maxrally.com