The World Rally Championship resumes in Greece on Friday with the Acropolis Rally. A total of 72 crews will battle it out in the new and tougher routes added by the organizers.
Dubbed the “Rally of Gods,” Acropolis Rally is held on very dusty, rough, and rocky mountain roads of mainland Greece at high speeds and is best known for being extremely tough on competing cars and drivers.
While many stage names are familiar, there have been considerable changes to the route. The most significant is that, for the first time since the event’s return to the WRC, the rally will not start in the capital city of Athens.
The service park remains in Lamia which, after Thursday morning’s shakedown at nearby Lygaria, will host a ceremonial start in the evening before the rally officially begins on Friday morning when crews head out for a loop of three stages – Ano Pavliani, Dafni, and Tarzan.
While Tarzan is the only stage of the entire rally run in an identical form to 2023, Ano Pavliani is mostly new for this year. Dafni was driven as part of the longer Pyrgos stage in 2021/22. All three are repeated after mid-day service to form the longest day of the rally in terms of competitive distance, at 83.9 miles.
Saturday is much longer in terms of hours and liaison if not in stage miles, which total 72.2. It takes the event south to roads that would previously be tackled out of Athens on a Friday. En route in the morning there are single passes of Rengini – reversed from last year – and Thiva, last used in 2021, plus a first pass of Aghii Theodori which uses a combination of familiar roads near Loutraki.
The resort of Loutraki hosts a mid-day regroup and tire-fitting zone before a new-look stage sharing the same name precedes the second pass of Aghii Theodori. The long road back to Lamia is punctuated by a super special at the Sirios motorway service station that also utilizes the Athens-bound carriageway of the A1.
Acropolis Rally “tough on cars and tyres”
This year’s drivers have been describing the rally as extremely challenging after completing their reconnaissance of the special stages.
“The stages are very rough, with stones everywhere. It will be tough on both the cars and the tyres. Overall, the stages are narrower compared to previous years, which will be a challenge for us. I expect the rally to be more difficult and demanding than last year,” said Thierry Neuville.
“The conditions are difficult. It’s probably the toughest Acropolis we’ve seen in recent years. It will undoubtedly be a challenging three days,” according to Elfyn Evan, while Adrien Fourmaux added:
“A major difference this year is that the stages are dry. The routes are narrow, demanding, but also tough. There are some new stages, and overall the rally is slower compared to last year. It’s certainly tougher than Portugal and Sardinia, and in some places, even tougher than the Safari!”
History of Acropolis Rally
The Acropolis Rally started out as a marathon/endurance-type event back in the early 1950s. When the rally became part of the World Rally Championship after 1973, the crews had to face up to eight hundred competitive kilometers in some of the most grueling stages and conditions imaginable.
This trip involved locations throughout Greece up to the late 1980s, such as the more well-known Kalambaka and Meteora, stages near Mount Olympus, Attica, Central Greece, and even down south in the Peloponnese.
Traditionally, the opening ceremony always took place under the legendary Acropolis in Athens while the closing ceremony was in the Panathenaic stadium.
The Acropolis Rally has been held since 1951 by the Greek Motorsports Organization Automobile and Touring Club of Greece (ELPA), making it one of the longest-standing competitions in world rallying.
Many world-renowned drivers have become champions, including Walter Röhrl, Björn Waldegård, Ari Vatanen, Stig Blomqvist, Juha Kankkunen, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae among others.
