{"id":15522,"date":"2024-09-10T14:04:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T12:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/eko-rally-acropolis-2024-mission-accomplished\/"},"modified":"2024-09-19T14:41:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T12:41:29","slug":"eko-rally-acropolis-2024-mission-accomplished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/eko-rally-acropolis-2024-mission-accomplished\/","title":{"rendered":"EKO RALLY ACROPOLIS 2024 – Mission accomplished!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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by Yannis-Marios Papadopoulos<\/strong><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

The EKO Acropolis Rally went down in history with the <\/strong>Hyundai becoming a major protagonist and with the appointment renewed for the 2025 race<\/strong><\/h3>\n

They say that “a coincidence that repeats itself ceases to be a coincidence”.
\nAnd Hyundai’s second “1-2-3” at the EKO Acropolis Rally in three years certainly cannot be a coincidence.
\nJust two years after its universal triumph at the EKO Rally Acropolis, Hyundai is back with a vengeance and has taken the podium.
\nJust like in 2022, with the same trio of crews, but with a slight difference.
\nBehind the big winners Thierry Neuville – Martijn Wydaeghe, this year Dani Sordo – Candido Carrera finished behind, with 2022 runners-up Ott Tanak – Martin Jarveoja completing the podium.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Second victory in the last three years in Greece for Neuville, who widened his gap at the top of the standings.<\/h6>\n

A small change, with a very big impact on the championship battle, as the points Neuville scored, combined with Tanak’s third place on one hand, and Ogier’s misfortune at the Wolf Power Stage, when his Toyota GR Yaris overturned due to his mistake, bring the Belgian even closer to the coveted first world title of his career.
\nThe historic success of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid came after a marathon of special stages that pushed people and machines to their limits and required patience, a clear mind and character.
\nIn short, all the elements demonstrated by Neuville, who took the lead in the 9th special and stayed there, avoiding unnecessary risk, without deviating for a moment from his strategy and his well-conceived plan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe celebrate with the whole Hyundai team the victory in this year’s EKO Acropolis Rally.<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

Battle for survival<\/strong><\/h4>\n

From the first special stage it seemed that the EKO Acropolis Rally was going to be a battle for survival.
\nMechanical problems and tyre punctures hit almost all the crews, with the shuffles being constant and the battles fully developed by the race finale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Adrien Fourmaux was unlucky, as while he was second overall, he broke the right front end of his Ford Puma after contact with a stone, resulting in him losing several positions.<\/h6>\n

There, in the second “Eleftherochori”, not only the fate of the race was finally and irrevocably decided, but to a large extent also this year’s Championship.
\nThe driver’s mistake cost Sebastien Ogier second place in the overall standings and deprived Toyota Gazoo Racing of valuable points in their bid for the Constructors’ Championship.
\nAt least the French driver managed to drive his damaged GR Yaris Rally1 to the finish, minimising his losses, as, although 16th in the final standings, he reaped third place points for the first two days of the race.
\nIn the WRC2 category, Sami Pajari in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 had a puncture on the Wolf Power Stage, which cost him 28.5 seconds, exactly the same as his gap to Robert Virves in his Skoda Fabia RS!
\nAlthough the two drivers had exactly the same time after 305 km.
\nAlthough the two drivers were exactly the same after 305 kilometres of special stages, Pajari was awarded the victory, in accordance with WRC regulations, as he was faster in the first special stage of the race.<\/p>\n

In the WRC3\/JWRC category, Norbert Maior may have been the winner, but the Junior Championship title went to Romet J\u00fcrgenson.
\nWith 11 fastest times in 15 special stages in his class, Armin Kremer in a Skoda Fabia RS left no room for doubt and scored another victory, bringing him closer to his goal of winning the WRC Masters Cup.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Corinthians Panagiotis Roustemis and Christos Bakloris were the fastest among the Greek crews, finishing 12th overall.<\/h6>\n

At the Greek level, Panagiotis Roustemis with Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 was the fastest, finishing the race in 12th place in the general classification.
\nHe was followed by Jordan Serderidis with Ford Puma Rally1 and Themis Chalkias with Renault Clio Rally3.
\nIn the two-wheel drive category, Savvas Lefkaditis with Peugeot 208 Rally4 was the winner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n
There was no shortage of impressive highlights from this year’s race<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

EKO<\/strong> Super Special Stage at<\/strong> “Sirios<\/strong>“<\/strong> Syntagma Square, OAKA, Water Square and this year… “Sirios”.
\nThe task was not easy for the organizers of the EKO Rally Acropolis.
\nBesides, to “cut” for almost one day half of the main road axis of the country, in order to hold the “Acropolis” super special there, was not an easy task.
\nThe “Sirius” proved to be quite hospitable for the crews, as there were very few racing incidents.
\nAnd this after a very demanding day, with more than 100 kilometres of special stages and almost 600 kilometres of simple stages.
\nThe picture from “Sirius” made the rounds of the world.
\nOne could say that overall it was positively commented on, leaving a positive imprint on the overall image of the race.
\nThe EKO Super Special Stage was the highlight of a very long day and the 10,000 spectators who were there to watch the action gave the crews a warm round of applause.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And next year!<\/strong> So the curtain has fallen!
\nThe most demanding and arduous EKO Acropolis Rally of recent years has passed into history.
\nA race that showed its relentless face to the 70 crews that climbed the starting ramp on Thursday 5 September, in the surrounding area of the Panhellenic Exhibition of Lamia, is now a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But the future is fast approaching.
\nThe decision of the 2025 EKO Acropolis Rally to be held in the traditional “acropolis” period of June, namely from the 26th to the 29th of the month, narrows the timeframe for its preparation.
\nSomething that doesn’t seem to stress the people of Motorsport Greece, as the experience of the previous four years shows that everything can be done, and in the best possible way!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

photos : www.acropolisrally.gr<\/strong><\/a> <\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Yannis-Marios Papadopoulos   The EKO Acropolis Rally went down in history with the Hyundai becoming a major protagonist and with the appointment renewed for the 2025 race They say that “a coincidence that repeats itself ceases to be a coincidence”. And Hyundai’s second “1-2-3” at the EKO Acropolis Rally in three years certainly cannot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,136,128,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-odigo-en","category-sports","category-periigiseis-ebeiries-en","category-taxidia-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15527,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions\/15527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}