WRC Rally Acropolis Greece 2021

[AnttiL]

I am pretty sure in RG1 says recce is 3 days... Monday to Wednesday...

Yes, you can get a waiver to have a three day recce. Monte does this as well sometimes (but for sure it's more difficult for other rallies to get the waivers accepted)

[pantealex]

3 day recce because so many stages are only driven once.

I believe surface is biggest reason for only 1 run, 2nd run might be fatal for current cars.

[AnttiL]

3 day recce because so many stages are only driven once.

I believe surface is biggest reason for only 1 run, 2nd run might be fatal for current cars.

Interesting because all those 2021 single-runs have been double-run in the past with bigger entry lists, so it shouldn't be an issue really. I think they just wanted to make a more ambitious route with a wider geographical area and more stage titles, something different. The route overlay is similar to the early 90's when they started the rally in Athens, went through Corinth to Lamia and ended the rally around Lamia. It was just more dense with special stages and now with more road sections

[scn]

3 day recce because so many stages are only driven once.

I believe surface is biggest reason for only 1 run, 2nd run might be fatal for current cars.

Modern cars with about 55 cm suspension travel, inclined shock-absorbers and high-tech materials are a lot stronger than anything seen in the past.
The reason for this route is solely because the organizer wanted to cover bigger area, to the style of old rallies, exactly as AnttiL said.

edit. This route is far from the toughest. Actually it is a rather soft Acropolis. Even SS Tarzan has been re-surfaced and has nothing in common with the hell it used to be.

[scn]

I am pretty sure in RG1 says recce is 3 days... Monday to Wednesday...

Yes, I just saw it. They give three days, a total of 34 hours for recce. This is barely enough. Some will not be able to make correct notes.

[atsiotras79]

The reason that the rally is so spread out is that there were many politicians involved behind the committee that got the rally and all of them wanted the rally to pass from their area!
It would have been a different rally otherwise, more compact.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t like that route.
I would have done exactly the same having the above in mind, and basically I am so happy that the rally is back!!!

[atsiotras79]

About the roughness of the rally, I have a feeling the first 3 SS of Friday around Loutraki will play very important role...
Ok, the odd rock (basketball size) may appear everywhere but having seen many of the tests for Turkey here in Greece in 18 and 19, the cars can handle these roads pretty well. This is not the reason for the one pass of the stages...

[scn]

Actually the past two or three years several Greek organizers do a very stupid thing. In the past it was not like this. This is a very modern trend. As I saw them doing it in two of the Acropolis stages last week, I will try to describe it. Wherever there is rocky surface they put fine gravel on top of it and then they pass a road-roller on it. During recce it looks fine, you think that you will drive in Finland. But everything changes after the first 7-8 4WD cars have passed. These first cars make big ruts on it, they bring the rocks and the ditches again on the surface and, most important, they mess up the whole road, they put loose gravel everywhere and they also make it utterly impossible to drive out of the racing line. After the first cars, in the racing line there are rocks that cannot be seen easily mixed with loose gravel and out of the racing line the surface is extremely slippery loose gravel that can very easily send you to the nearby trees. This is more stupid and more dangerous than can be imagined, but I am afraid we will see it in this year's Acropolis also.

[pantealex]

I believe surface is biggest reason for only 1 run, 2nd run might be fatal for current cars.

(after Portugal and Sardinia)
I´m still keeping my opinion, others are free to have their own.

[AnttiL]

Maybe you should look at onboards from Cetibeli in Turkey. Two runs, and mostly only punctures