The second half of the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship starts this weekend at the hot and dusty Acropolis Rally (11-14 June) where there will be a lot of changes in store. The event has been based for the past three years close to the Greek capital Athens. This year the base will be at Loutraki, some 100km west of Athens, near the celebrated canal city of Corinth. The Ceremonial start on the Thursday evening will be held close to the Canal itself. Loutraki is famous for many aspects, notably its history as a therapeutic spa town and a source of natural spring water. The event has passed by Loutraki before, a remote service park was held here during the 2008 Acropolis Rally.

The nature of the route of the rally is changed a lot this year, running on the first day around the Golf of Corinth past Delphi to Itea, where this year there will be a remote service halt. The second day sees stages the other side of Corinth in the Peloponnese peninsula, the first time the Acropolis has visited this part of Greece since 1991. The final day will visit stages in the mountains to the east of Loutraki. Several of the stages on the rally, especially on the first day, are only used once. This is good for reducing the degradation caused by double passage but bad for the amount of extra pre-rally work to be covered during the regulatory two day recce. This is likely to be the hottest rally of this year’s championship and in many ways the most exhausting for the crews, on account of the effect of the heat on crews wearing multilayered fireproof overalls. It is also one of the most demanding on account of the tyre wear.

Clerk of the Course Anita Passalis says the Loutraki municipality authorities are very helpful and enjoyed the short time when the rally passed last year. The reason why so many stages are once-only is mainly to have the chance to re-visit several historic stages in the classic areas around Delphi, and there isn’t time to do them twice.

The originally published list of competitors named 47 crews, including all nine registered WRC team drivers, and most importantly Petter Solberg. Since the Acropolis original entry list was published the additional Adapta team’s Subaru Impreza World Rally Car entry for Ari Vovos has been withdrawn. Adapta are back to the sole entry for Mads Ostberg, who this time has the new codriver Jonas Andersson. JWRC cars do not go to Greece (their next event is Poland). In PCWRC there are 17 entries, including one Guest driver and the two PSD drivers. The Guest is Lambros Athanassoulas who will be at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia S2000 rented from Italy. The Subaru entry for TSI Racing India is to be taken over by Italian gentleman driver Stefano Marrini. The withdrawal of the Vovos entry is a major blow for Greek enthusiasts, it is the first time ever that a Greek driver has not been present on this event in a top level rally car.

This will be the third event in which the five Pirelli Star Driver award winners appear and another chance for Jarkko Nikara, who scored three scratch times among the Group N drivers in Sardinia, to show his natural talents. The Ralliart Italia’s fuel contamination problems experienced by all the members of the team in Sardinia have been traced to degradation of the rubber fuel tanks. For Acropolis these will be replaced by smaller metal fuel tanks with auxiliary secondary tanks to extend the range, and recent hot weather tests in South Italy suggested their Sardinia problem had been solved. Jon Williams Sardinia problems were different: he suffered a clutch master cylinder failure and later tackled two stages with power steering trouble. Further down the field, the Acropolis will see the world championship debut of the Opel Corsa S2000 in the hands of veteran gentleman driver Haris Kaltsounis, for whom this is his 40th Acropolis as a participant, either as codriver or as now a driver.

Greece will be the first appearance by Gerard Quinn in his new position as Ford European competition chief. As on the previous event in Sardinia it is his team’s driver Jari-Matti Latvala who starts with a tremendous advantage. Latvala will be running sixth car on the road (sixth being his current position in the world drivers championship standings) with no fewer than five of them (totalling 117km) being run in virgin, uncleaned conditions on the first day. Sebastien Loeb, suffering the pains of stardom, runs first car on the road once again. Running-order tactics are anticipated with a vengeance during the event

Radu Roman for autorally.ro
Loutraki 10.06.2009