EKO Rally Acropolis: The crews’ first impressions of the race’s special routes

Two days left for the grand celebration of the EKO Rally Acropolis 2022! The Panhellenic Exhibition of Lamia Service Park has taken its final shape, the race stages have taken their place and now there is little time until the start of the race with the spectacular EKO Super Special Stage in OAKA.

While the engineers and team members work feverishly in the city of Lamia, the crews plow the Greek countryside, carry out the prescribed explorations and prepare their notes.

A particularly important and “fine” process that makes the essential difference for the absolute time on the special routes. This gives the participants a first foretaste of the race and the surfaces on which they will compete in the following days. Let’s see what they said about it.

Factory Crews (Rallye1)

• #69 Kale Rovanpera – Jone Haltunen (Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT)

“So far everything is looking good. Conditions are good, although some spots are rougher than last year. It doesn’t have that many patches of swampy ground, but there are quite a few planting stones. Certainly given the morphology of the specialists on Friday, the driver’s position that we have won’t help us.”

• #8 Ot Tanak – Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)

“The Specials are in good condition. There is some mud in some places, but nothing special and important. Everything looks good.”

• #11 Thierry Neville – Martin Vidage (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)

“The race includes a series of soft and hard tracks, with fast and tight sections, but also low speeds. In fact, it has a little bit of everything! What I’m hoping for is dry surfaces and no rain, which will help us with the starting order on day one. From there we will see how things develop. Certainly the starting XI will play a bigger role on Friday.”

• #33 Elfyn Evans-Scott Martin (Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT)

“Because of the rain you can say that the race has a bit of everything! But I think the road conditions on race days will be completely different. In some places it’s tougher than last year, but not everywhere. It’s almost in a similar situation to 2021.”

• #18 Takamoto Katsuta – Aaron Johnston (Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT New Generation)

“The race is definitely tougher than last year. There are several scattered stones on the road. Last year I just did the recognitions of the race and that’s basically new to me.”

• #4 Esapeka Lapi – Yane Ferm (Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT)

“The race is not as tough as I expected. The conditions are better than I remember compared to my last participation. I just hope the specials dry up because when it’s muddy it’s not as much fun! We don’t expect it to rain, but in some places where the sun doesn’t shine, you can’t know if it’s dried or if there’s still mud. We’ll see what will happen. Of course, in order to attract attention, you also need luck, so as not to break the car or have an accident.”

• #19 Sebastian Lebb – Isabelle Galmis (M-Sport Ford WRT)

“It’s not that easy for me, since almost all of the specials are new to me. It takes hard work to take notes with the required precision. In any case, the specials are very nice and with great driving interest. However, the surfaces aren’t as hard as I remembered, although we mustn’t forget how much the cars have improved since then. Especially in the suspension area and I think our cars will have no problem.

• #6 Dani Sordo – Cadito Carrera (Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT)

“I would say that all stages have almost a different surface! Some have some rocks while others are more slippery or have muddy spots. Certainly the race is quite demanding and no harder than last year.”

• #7 Pierre-Louis Loubet – Vincent Lande (M-Sport Ford WRT)

“You definitely have to have very good grades. I hope it doesn’t rain because that increases the level of difficulty significantly. I think the conditions are better than last year but we’ll see that in the race.”

WRC2/Rally2 crews

• #20 Andreas Milelsen – Torstein Eriksen (Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)

“Conditions are good, although in some places there is more water than I expected. But I think by the weekend they will be dry. The race features a combination of new and old special routes, making it extremely interesting. Our class will have a lot of competition. We achieved a good result last year that we definitely want to repeat.”

• #21 Johan Rossel – Valentin Sarrot (Citroen C3 Rally2)
  

“I really like special routes. But I think it will be difficult conditions for man and machine. The first day is mostly dry but the second day has a lot of low grip spots. If we get a good result here, it will be very important for the championship.”

• #22 Timou Suninen – Mikko Markoula (Hyundai i20 N Rally2)

“The special courses are extremely interesting and certainly a great challenge for the driver. They are very technical but tough. You have to find the balance between speed and reliability and avoid accidents and problems in the car.”

• #26 Christopher Ingram – Craig Drew (Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)

“It’s incredible! I’m thrilled. It’s one of the most difficult races of the year and I’m really happy to be here. There’s mud in some places but I believe the stages will be dry by Friday.”

• #28 Georg Liname – James Morgan (Volkswagen Polo GTI Rally2)

“The special routes are very interesting. There are some hard and difficult parts, but not as hard as I expected.”

Greek crews

• #47 Giorgos Kechagias – Dimitris Sainis (Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)

“The special offers are nice. Everything is fine except for a few muddy spots. And Loutraki’s are in good shape and I would say they’re generally better than last year.”

• #49 Lampros Athanassoulas – Nikos Zakhaios (Hyundai i20 N Rally2)

“I think the race is a bit tougher than last year but the rain improved the situation. Tarzan and the Orchard was helped by the rain. Loutraki’s stages are in good condition while Harvati, although it’s tough, I don’t think we’ll have a problem as it’s only held once.

• #50 Alexandros Tsouloftas – Ross Whittock (Volkswagen Polo GTI Rally2)

“The race is more difficult than last year. It has quite a bit of mud in places and I hope it dries up before the race. The peculiarity is that it requires special management with the tires. The Rally1 hybrids throw a lot of stones on the road, which will make it difficult for us descendants. It requires attention to control the tires but also to avoid spinning.”

• #52 Manos Stefanis / Kostas Stefanis (Hyundai i20 N Rally2)

“The weather conditions will play a crucial role. If the rain stops there is no problem. Otherwise it becomes a difficult equation. Today only the shady spots hold mud. Loutraki’s specials are clean while Livadeia had some slippery spots at the finish. The match is nice, difficult, as you would expect from an Acropolis.”

• #54 Themis Chalkias / Andreas Vigos (Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)

“The rain improved the specials! Of course, there is still mud in some spots where the sun doesn’t break through, but certainly not to the extent one would expect from the fallen rain data. In general, the special routes are in good condition.”

Sportish lives the legendary EKO Acropolis Rally together with EKO, the largest Greek marketing company in its category and a main sponsor of the event and also the “EKO Super Special Stage” in OAKA.