Chris Atkinson, one of the promising stars in the World Rally Championship, is struggling in the current WRC season but is confident that Subaru is progressing that it is on the way to claiming its former glory. Atkinson said that Subaru is catching up with leaders Citroen and Ford.

This season, Subaru is yet to take a win after eight rallies completed. In fact, the last win posted by a Subaru driver was two years ago at the Wales Rally GB. Last season, Atkinson performed below par which has put him under pressure from the Japanese automaker.

This year though, Atkinson is showing signs of a good performance by finishing in the top eight in five events. He has already racked up 15 points so far and his accomplishment this year includes a fourth place finish in Monte Carlo. Atkinson has said that his performance and the reliability of his car show that Subaru is a better challenger to Ford and Citroen.

?It’s not been too bad,? said Atkinson. ?I’m fairly happy with how I’ve performed. I’ve set fastest times on tarmac, gravel and snow this year and we were leading the last rally in Greece, so things are there and it’s not too far away from all coming together.?

?The highs I think have been leading in Greece and the Monte Carlo super-special; that was pretty cool and the atmosphere was great. To go and win the stage and take a place off Mikko (Hirvonen) ? ok it wasn’t for a podium but it was a good battle rally-long ? was fun. As to lows, obviously the crash in Portugal wasn’t that much fun and things hadn’t been going as planned up until then, but the three rallies since that have all been quite good for me,? he stated further.

The revised Impreza with its Subaru vent visor and a host of racing parts has played a key role in Atkinson?s better performance this season. Nine of his points came after the introduction of the said car. Atkinson pointed out further that the improvement is still not complete since the next even will be one of his favorite events in the WRC calendar. The Neste Oil Rally Finland will be held from the third to the fifth of August.

?I love the stages in Finland. Unfortunately we had some technical problems last year, but this time I think things are in much better shape and we should have good speed there. We would probably have finished fourth last year if we hadn’t had the problems, so you never know where we could be,? Atkinson talked on the issue.

Subaru currently has 43 points while second place Ford already has 86 and leader Citroen has 114. Atkinson pointed out that they have to catch up with these two teams immediately. ?We obviously want to put our foot down a bit now and start fighting with the main Ford team and Citroën. We showed that a little bit in Greece, and hopefully we can do that some more in the second half of the year.?

?Judging by Monte Carlo and the test we’ve just had, the car seems quite good on tarmac and I think we’ve made some steps forward there as well. We’ve got four tarmac rallies to come and there are a lot of points up for grabs there. It’s definitely going to be interesting and we’re going to have to be on top of our game,? the Australian rally driver enthused.