Citroen announces junior WRC team
January 4th, 2009 phix
Announced back in December on the 24th, Citroen has revealed that they will be running a second team in the 2009 World Rally Championship. Coined as the Citroen Junior Team, it will contest a minimum of eight events in the 2009 in order to be officially recognized as a manufacturer junior team thus being eligible to score manufacturer points. In regards to the driver line up it’ll be no surprise to see Conrad Rautenbach back in one of the cars as well as Evgeny Novikov. These two will be contesting the full twelve rounds of the 2009 season while a third driver, Sebastien Ogier, will contest at least six rounds. However, there IS a possibility that the Junior World Rally Champion will be competing in more than six rounds no doubt depending on his performance.
And… perhaps the most interesting bit of news from this announcement …will be that of ex-Subaru driver, Chris Atkinson, will be driving for the team in the opening Rally Ireland round. It has been announced that he’s only be signed on to drive for this single rally but there is a possibility that depending on how well he does he’ll be signed on to drive for more rallies during the season.
The 2009 World Rally Championship is set to kick off with Rally Ireland on January 30th.