Brakes On, Subaru Exits

Newcastle Herald

Saturday December 20, 2008

Brent Davison

SUBARU has become the third Japanese car maker to pull out of a world motorsport program because of the ongoing credit crunch.

The multiple World Rally Championship (WRC) winner's withdrawal from the sport came less than a fortnight after Honda shut down its Formula One team and put it on the market and one day after Suzuki announced the immediate closure of its world rally team.

Subaru's decision to quit the sport at least for the 2009 season comes after 20 years in the sport and six world championships won with the Impreza WRX and STI cars that were developed from road-going homologation models.

Since starting in the WRC with its Legacy (Liberty in Australia) model in 1990 Subaru has taken 47 WRC wins in 19 seasons.

David Richards, chairman of Prodrive, the company responsible for running the Subaru team, said Subaru's departure from the WRC was a great loss because the company was one of rallying's icons.

"The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over," Richards said.

Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru's parent company) president Ikuo Mori said the decision to withdraw from the sport had been a difficult one and gave no indication when or if Subaru would be back in the sport as a full factory team.

Neither Subaru nor Prodrive has commented on the future arrangements of its team drivers Petter Solberg and Australian Chris Atkinson.

For its part Prodrive will move WRC team members into other areas of its business.

It is not known at this stage if Subaru will come back into the sport with the change to new WRC technical regulations designed to make the sport more cost-effective for participants due next year.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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