In a festive atmosphere, the Athens Olympic Sports Center “Spyros Louis” welcomed the best WRC riders to a super-special IVF. Rally Acropolis. With Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the stands of the Greek Sports Fleet, OAKA, celebrated her birthday in the best possible way as she celebrates 40 years of her contribution to Greek sport and society today. Yesterday, the Prime Minister experienced the “thrill” of racing driving as he was on the track at the Olympic Stadium as a driver as well as co-driver of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Race Director Jari Mari Latvala.

The great celebration of motorsport began with the fact that two of the glory of Greek athletics took to the OAKA track Paralympic gold medalist Nassos Havelas and two-time European champion Antigoni Drisbioti took to the track as co-drivers. The “golden” girl of the walk admitted that she was frightened at first, but then calmed down. Pump Havelas, on the contrary, said that he was not afraid for a second.

… The main course of the event began with the opening of the match by the Deputy Minister of Sports, Lefteris Avgenakis, in a stadium with a capacity of more than 45,000 spectators. 1,000 cubic meters of gravel, 4,000 square meters of wood, 120 tons of steel and 1,004 meters of protective parapets were used to build the race track at the historic site. The start ramp is set up at the stadium’s main entrance and the public can see racing with hybrid technology for the first time.

From 2021, the Rally of the Gods returns to the WRC calendar. This year’s Rally 1 cars are different from last year’s. The top class uses hybrid technology, while the WRC’s “green” turn ends with the use of biofuels and synthetic fuels, which will have lower CO2 emissions but similar performance and similar costs. In addition to the Rally 1 specification cars, there are four other classes that complete the WRC racing pyramid. Not only the Rally 5 category participates in special tracks.

With three wheels after a collision

Cars drove onto the asphalt road in pairs. The start of each pair was given by members of the Greek government and Greek Olympians. The last couple in the Rally2 category were Andreas Mikkelsen in a Skoda Fabia Evo and Johan Rochelle in a Citroen C3. Mickelsen, however, collided with the fence, but, despite the broken suspension, he continued to evoke the applause of the crowd. In fact, the Norwegian car moved on three wheels.

As expected, Rally 1 overshadowed the show. When Sebastian Lamb took to the track, all the spectators rose to their feet to honor the memory of the nine-time world champion. One of the strongest fights of the evening was the fight between last year’s winner Kale Rovanper and Otti Tanaka. In the end, the winner of this EKO Rally Acropolis duel was Tanak. The fastest route was completed by Thierry Neville with a time of 1.58.4. “It was a good start for my team in front of a fantastic crowd,” said the rider.

Athanasoulas/Zakhaios were the fastest Greek team of the day. Lambros Atanasoulas in a Rally2 Hyundai i20 N was even faster than Serderidis in a Rally1 Ford Puma

The Friday program includes six special routes (Loutraki (2), Harvati, Daphni, Livadia, Bauxity), three Saturday ones (Pyrgos, Perivoli, Tarzan), and the curtain of the organization of the Ministry of Sports will descend with special routes in Elefterochori and Regini. The total length is 303 km.