Pre-Acropolis Rally update - team by team.

The 49th Acropolis Rally is the seventh out of 14 in the 2002 FIA World Rally Championship. It is also the third round of of six in the 2002 Junior WRC.

A gravel event which traditionally runs on rough and abrasive tracks, which this year are promised to be smoother than before. It is the highest world championship rally in Europe.

Pre-Acropolis Rally update - team by team.

The 49th Acropolis Rally is the seventh out of 14 in the 2002 FIA World Rally Championship. It is also the third round of of six in the 2002 Junior WRC.

A gravel event which traditionally runs on rough and abrasive tracks, which this year are promised to be smoother than before. It is the highest world championship rally in Europe.

The 89 entries make this the first event to approach the new maximum limit of 90. This event comes at the end of the first half for both championships, and is the first of only two rounds of the Junior World Rally Championship held this year on gravel.

On this event World Rally Championship teams are allowed to carry two spare wheels, but many prefer not to do this, to save weight. Junior World Rally Championship are always permitted two spares.

Novelties this year:

Although the centre of the event is the Service Park, the official headquarters and the finish are at Itea. Cars will be put into an overnight parc ferme alongside the Service Park. This is the same place as last year now officially called Lilea-Parnassos. This time the ceremonial start is on the same day as Shakedown. The Shakedown has been moved to Kastellia, about 15km from the Service Park and about 50km north of headquarters. There is only one new stage (number 4). The route is more compact than ever, and this year does not go to the Livadia region.

News from the Manufacturers' team:

Team Peugeot Totol:

(Championship leader after Argentina, 68 points) - Richard Burns (car no. 1), Marcus Gronholm (car no. 2) and Harri Rovanpera (car no. 3).

Debut of 2002 version 206 World Rally Car. Main features, according to chief engineer Michel Nandan, are: "Different apertures in the bonnet to improve underbonnet cooling, revised rear wing to give more constant downforce, slight changes in the turbocharger and wastegate and stronger suspension".

This is a rally Gronholm has never finished. They are to run three new cars on this event.

Ford Motor Company:

(2nd, 41 points) - Carlos Sainz (car no. 4), Colin McRae (car no. 5) and Markko Martin (car no. 6).

Statistically this is a rally where Ford's drivers have to be favourites. Colin McRae has won here four times in last six years: the last time another driver finished in front of him on this rally was ten years ago! He is up for a victory hat-trick this time and drives his actual 2001 Cyprus winning car. Carlos Sainz has been on the podium here eight previous times. Despite considerable testing, both for gravel and asphalt, conservative specifications have been chosen for this event.

555 Subaru World Rally Team:

(3rd, 33 points) - Tommi Makinen (car no. 10), Petter Solberg (car no. 11) and Toshihiro Arai (car no. 12).

This is Subaru's first third car entry of the season. Arai is the first registered works Japanese driver on a full world championship event since Yoshihiro Kataoka in Indonesia in 1996. This is an event four times world champion Tommi Makinen has never won: after their crash in Argentina, he and co-driver Lindstrom wrote to the team thanking them for their success in building a safe car. It rolled more than eight times. Team crew will attend an acclimatisation training course at Delphi a week beforehand. Solberg has a new car for this event.

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart:

(4th, 6 points) - Francois Delecour (car no. 7) and Alister McRae (car no. 8). No third entry on this event.

Two ex-Cyprus cars. Team Manager Derek Dauncey notes: "Development has been progressing on two fronts. As this is the first time our World Rally Car is allowed to carry two spare wheels, the interior has been rearranged to facilitate access and to achieve optimum weight balance. Meanwhile testing work has already started on the new 'Step 2' evolution model." This 2002 evolution version Lancer is due to make its debut in Finland.

Skoda Motorsport:

(5th, 5 points) - Kenneth Eriksson (car no. 14), Toni Gardemeister (car no. 15) and Stig Blomqvist (car no. 16).

Same cars as Cyprus and prepared to the same basic specifications as in Argentina, where three cars finished in the top ten and gained the team's first points of the season. Team Director Pavel Janeba will be absent from this event - Team Manager this time will be Jiri Kotek.

Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team:

(6th, 3 points) - Armin Schwarz (car no. 17), Freddy
Loix (car no. 18) and Juha Kankkunen (car no. 19).

Graham Moore replaces Nick Clipson (the 'father' of the Accent World Rally Championship) as Chief Engineer. This is Kankkunen's 14th Acropolis, he is the only Finnish driver to win this event in 15 years and for this event has a new car. He won here on his first entry, has finished nine times, always finishing on the podium.

Automobiles Citroen:

(not eligible for points in 2002) - Thomas Radstrom (car no. 20) and Sebastien Loeb (car no. 21).

Getting ready for their full challenge in 2003, Citroen are tackling the next four world events. Team director Guy Frequelin said: "We have acquired a lot of technical experience recently. Now the team is to gain experience of the logistical pressure of entering successive events!" Considerable testing has been carried out since their last appearance in Cataluna - two sessions in Greece, one in Argentina and one in Finland.

News from the FIA Junior World Rally Championship:

New officially approved Junior World Rally Championship rule for gravel rallies: teams may use 4x4 recce cars.

Junior World Rally Championship entry changes - Stenshorne moves to Opel, Caldani to Fiat - only Doppelreiter's Peugeot is left in the series, new co-driver for Suzuki driver Niwa is Tatsuya Ideue.

Suzuki are preparing three new cars in gravel specification for this event. MG has installed a new aluminium water radiator on Evans' British championship car. Paco Roig has withdrawn from the series and will not start.

Welcome Renault: Simon Jean-Joseph's entry represents the first world rally appearance for the Clio Super 1600, but he will be running out of the Junior World Rally Championship.

Currently the strongest national Super 1600 series is in France where Saxos won the first two qualifying events despite challenges from the new Renault and the second generation Peugeot. In Britain Evans' MG ZR won the opening round, Dale's Peugeot the second.

Current standings: Duval (Ford) 11 pts, Sola (Citroen) 10 pts, Caldani (Peugeot) and Dallavilla (Fiat) both 6 pts, etc.

Other top runners in Acropolis:

Factory Peugeot cars supported by Gilles Panizzi entered by Bozian Racing. Greek drivers Aris Vovos and Yannis Papadimitriou (between them, the national champions five times in the past seven years) for the first time compete against each other in the same type of car - Ford Focus World Rally Cars.

News from other events:

There was a 1-2 for Malaysian drivers on the second round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, in New Caledonia, when Karamjit Singh (Proton) beat Saladin Mazlan (Hyundai). In Zimbabwe, South African Ian Gemmell (Subaru) scored his second FIA African Championship win of the season.

Special facts:

Thursday will be a very long working day. Shakedown (50km north of Itea) starts at 07h00, not the usual 08h00. Cars and crews must then travel nearly 200km to the ceremonial start, which begins at 20h00 and back again. Leg 1 starts from Lilea Parnassos the next morning at 08h00...

Although there is a small emergency Service Park close to the start of the 6km Shakedown road (5 km southwest of the village of Kastellia) the top teams expect to be based on Thursday at Lilea-Parnassos...

As the route from the airport to the national road to Lamia is still not yet sign posted, the organisers have put 'roadbook' instructions on their website.

Three weeks after the Acropolis, ELPA is to run the first edition of the Historic Acropolis Rally. Like the old days this will run on both the mainland and the Peloponnese, making the crossing by ferry...

A most closely fought class in the event will be the Group A 1600cc category, which includes not only the nine Super 1600 manufacturers cars but also Daewoo, Hyundai and Toyota cars...

Peugeot's domination of the World series so far this year has been a factor of both performance and reliability. Both Gronholm and Burns have reached the end of all six events so far. No driver has scored or even officially finished every time, but Gronholm, Solberg and Colin McRae have all scored five times. Regular works drivers yet to score a point are Delecour, Schwarz and Loix...

Acropolis 2002 is the 15th anniversary of the use of deflation proof mousse inserts, pioneered originally by Michelin...

Sad news. Jutta Gebert, co-driver to Beppo Harrach who together were contesting the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship, died in a rally accident in her home country Austria, one week after Argentina...

Coinciding with the coronation anniversary of the British Queen was the 50th birthday of the co-driver who won the Acropolis Rally in 1980 and 1981. This is David Richards, now better known as the Chairman of the rights holders ISC.

Technical challenge:

With promises that this year's route will be smoother than before, the attention switches to heat, not only underbonnet but also in the cockpit. There are no easy solutions to cooling the crews. All teams have roof-mounted air scoops as standard equipment, but these are not necessarily effective as often they let dust enter the cockpit. Subaru has blanked their scoops off altogether. Both Peugeot and Citroen have experimented with air conditioning to cars in the past, while all the teams pay serious attention to the food and fluid intakes for the crews. After Burns' troubles with high in-car temperatures in Cyprus, Peugeot are designing a miniature a/c system for cooling the World Champion's helmet for this event. With each stage averaging 18 minutes in length, constant performances from start to finish of stages is as vital for the crew as the tyres!

Read More