Acropolis Rally set to move to Lamia?

The Acropolis Rally could be set to move back to central Greece and be based in Lamia next season, according to the rumours circulating at last weekend's 55th running of the event.

Citroen's Sebastien Loeb came out top following that recent round, but the roads around Athens are not especially popular, and day two's stages this year were especially rough and punishing with many of the drivers and team bosses less than happy.

Speaking prior to the event, Munchi's Ford guest driver and local star Aris Vovos revealed that the switch is definitely on the cards - and that the stages in Lamia, which last hosted the event in 2005, are a lot, lot better.

"When this rally moved to Athens it was not a very successful decision. That's to do with the quality of stages," said Vovos, who is probably the best placed driver to talk about it, having taken in the Acropolis 14 times since 1993 - more times than any other current competitor in the World Rally Championship.

"Around here the stages are rough, the mountain roads are very rocky and not in good condition. I believe it's a decision which has been taken to move the rally back to Lamia next year.

"Lamia has hosted the rally many times and it's a place which has better stages and more spectators. The spectator numbers around Athens have always been a little bit of a problem. Take away the [short] super specials and you don't have so many. It's very important for the rally with the famous name of Acropolis to have the people. I think the move back to Lamia will be shown to be a clever decision."

Sebastien Loeb's co-driver Daniel Elena agreed that the decision to switch back to Lamia could be a good one: "It's okay. For us we had a very good result last time there [and won in 2005]," he continued. "In Athens, in 2006 we finished with two wheels and in 2007 we had an exploded tyre when we were fighting with Marcus [Gr?nholm]. Here it's rough, but in Lamia you have good stages and the beach!"

Subaru boss David Richards and Mikko Hirvonen's co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen meanwhile were both unimpressed with the state of the stages, following what many thought was one of the roughest WRC events in recent memory.

"I think personally it is rather disappointing. This rally used to be in the past the top event but it wasn't a car breaking event. It was a really fantastic ride," Richards noted. "It's disappointing for me that the event will be judged on rough roads like these, possibly a bit too much luck comes into it, and not the skills of the actual drivers."

"For me, it's my fifth time in Greece and third time in Athens and I've never seen the roads so bad," added Lehtinen. "I don't know if it's been a bad winter or something, but the roads were terrible in places - just rocks left."

There is no official word yet on where the Acropolis will go next season, but a spokesperson for the event confirmed to Crash.net that 'most probably' next year's Acropolis Rally will be moving from Athens.

"Any decision about moving to Lamia has not been taken yet [though]," added the spokesperson. "The organising committee will examine all possible solutions and will issue a press release as soon as a decision has been taken."