Acropolis Rally 1996

The official WWW site of the Acropolis Rally with up to date result service and pictures.

After the rains and mud of the newcomer in the WRC, Indonesia, things were back to normal in the Greek Acropolis Rally. It was dry, hot and dusty, with rocks waiting on the road to shred your tires everywhere. The route was, however, shorter than in previous years to fit the rally in three days. Most of the top drivers came to Greece, excluding Juha Kankkunen who didn't get enough support for a private Toyota entry.

From the first leg it was again the dynamic duo of Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen who were battling for the lead. Colin was fastest by 30 seconds on the first stage. Carlos Sainz got the second place until after stage 3 Makinen sorted out his rear brake problems and began the real chase for the lead. The chase wasn't very succesful, though, and at the end of the day Makinen was 54 secs behind Mcrae and Sainz another minute behind McRae. The first major retirement was Thomas Radstrom who crashed out in a massive manner ending up 50 meters from the road. Kenneth Eriksson of Subaru lost over 8 minutes with technical problems.

There were also protests by Subaru chief David Richards as on SS6 the road was blocked by a large rock for some drivers so that they had to take another track which was much slower. The spectators had had some fun and altered the route as there were no marshalls on the spot. The result was that the stage was cancelled which was very helpful for Eriksson and also McRae who had a minor off trying to avoid the road-blocking rock.

At the first stage of the second day Makinen damaged the steering rod badly and had to drive three stages with a very tricky steering before servicing was allowed. He lost half a minute to McRae who stayed at the lead with no problems other than some suspension trouble. Makinen took back the lost time and was 45 secs behind in the evening, so he was clearly the fastest driver of the day. Carlos Sainz lost momentarily the third place for Eriksson but took it back during the day. Piero Liatti was now close behind Eriksson who wasn't having a good time. Behind them the national battle of Belgian honours was fought as Bruno Thiry of Ford passed Freddy Loix who was having a good rally with his privateer Toyota.

As ever, the roads in Acropolis were very hard for the tires and punctures were common. Puncture-proof tires which all the teams were using helped somewhat but they too are slower when punctured and sometimes the surface of the tire simply disintegrates and lets the mousse out of the tire so drivers had to change tires themselves on areas where additional service was not allowed.

On the last day of the rally Makinen continued to close up on McRae but his winning hopes deteriorated as his rear tires went out completely with three stages to go. The last stages were played safe by the top drivers and so Colin McRae became the pleased winner of Acropolis. Makinen and Sainz didn't complain over their podium places, either. The margins were quite clear, after all. Eriksson was apparently still having small problems and lost the fourth position for team-mate Piero Liatti. Thiry defeated his fellow countryman Loix by 25 secs.

The top three in the championship is still very close so we'll expect to see an exciting second half of the WRC, starting in Argentina at the beginning of July.

Results of the Acropolis Rally:

Championship standing, drivers

1. Makinen      55
2. Sainz        47
3. McRae        42
4. Liatti       33
5. Eriksson     31

Manufacturers:

1. Subaru       178
2. Mitsubishi   138
3. Ford         128

Rally Argentina, July 3-6.