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Before taking on the challenging Rally Mexico last weekend, Australia’s top international rally driver Chris Atkinson made a shock team switch for this year’s FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship and will drive an Indian-run Skoda at his home event in Queensland in May.

The MRF team, based in Chennai, India, has signed Atkinson to drive a Skoda Fabia S2000 against the arch-rival Malaysian Proton factory squad, for which the 32-year-old competed over the past two seasons.

He will compete with Belgian co-driver Stefan Prevot in round three of the Asia Pacific Championship at the International Rally of Queensland, based at Caloundra, north of Brisbane, on 25-27 May.

It will be the only Australian appearance this season for the former Subaru World Rally Team star and promises that the Asia Pacific region’s two best teams will stage a fierce battle with their four world-class drivers and cars.

Proton won the 2011 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, but despite Atkinson taking three of the six rounds the driver’s title went to his teammate Alister McRae.

With Junior World Rally Champion Per-Gunnar Andersson of Sweden taking over his Proton seat this season, Atkinson’s plans were a well-kept secret until his surprise announcement by MRF.

The International Rally of Queensland, on forest roads Atkinson has known well since he started his rally driving career in an old Toyota Corolla in 2000, will be a crucial event in his quest to win the 2012 Asia Pacific series for MRF.

The team won the championship in 2003, 2005 and 2010, but last year its production-based Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions struggled for pace against the purpose-built Proton Satria S2000s of Atkinson and McRae

MRF has responded by purchasing two Skoda Fabias of the same S2000 specification from Belgium for Atkinson and Indian Rally Champion Guarav Gill. The Skoda is a proven model, having won the Super 2000 World Rally Championship and Europe’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge last year.

Praising Atkinson as a “formidable driver” MRF team principal Tony Rodricks said: “Atkinson, with an aggressive attitude and (as) a highly-rated professional with vast experience in the diverse terrain of the APRC, is the right choice for MRF’s quest for the title, as he has also been driving the Proton S2000 for the past two years.”

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