Photos by SWRT.com
In this article you can read some of Phil Mills’s personal thoughts and opinions about the stages that he and Petter Solberg had to battle during the WRC Acropolis rally. Subaru’s co-driving ace Phil Mills describes them here:
SSS1/17/23 Hippodrome (3.3km)
The rally opens and closes with a superspecial stage inside the Olympic equestrian centre. It’s one of the most bizarrely shaped superspecials I’ve ever seen – one side of the course is a mirror image of the other, and there are lots of twists and turns across the infield of the horse racing track. It’s very dusty; sometimes the organisers will spray some water on the track to dampen down the dust. Here I hope they don’t water it too much because the surface is soil-based and could just turn into mud. However, if they don’t water it at all, we’ll spend the whole stage driving in a cloud of dust.
SS2/6 Schimatari (11.57km)
This is a brand new stage for this year. This road is in an agricultural area and has a soil base. When we recce’d it on Monday, it had just rained and the conditions were exceptionally muddy. Since then, we’ve had some very hot, dry weather, so the stage surface will have become very hard, like concrete. It’s very smooth, so there won’t be much tyre wear, but it will be a very tricky stage, with crests and jumps and big drops off the side of the road.
SS3/7 Thiva (23.76km)
This is a classic stage. It contains 63 junctions within its 23km. It’s not particularly rough in comparison to other Greek stages, but it is very varied. You have to get into a good rhythm, and if you lose that, you’ll not be quick through the stage. It starts with a very twisty section in a forest, then goes out into the open through a big spectator area. After that it goes slightly rough again and gets exceptionally twisty through the forest, before finishing with a 3km flat-out section through some fields. That section is a case of seeing which driver is the bravest. It’s been used for the last three years and we have been fastest through it each time on Pirelli tyres. This year we are on BFGoodrich, so it will be interesting to see if we can win this stage again.
SS4/8 Agia Sotira (15.20km)
Another absolutely classic old-style Greece stage. It is mainly uphill, the surface is all bedrock and there are big rocks on the side of the stage. If the car in front of you touches one of those, it flies out into the middle of the road. We had three punctures on this stage last year. It is very rough and it is survival of the fittest, rather than the fastest, through this one. We will take great care to preserve the car – if someone takes a lot of time out of us on this stage, they will have taken huge risks and their car will probably be wrecked. It’s a matter of keeping the car in the middle of the road, finding the nicest line and staying calm. It is a tyre-killer, suspension-murderer and very uncomfortable for the crew, even it is only 15km.
SS5/13 Markopoulo (5.16km)
This stage is held on the perimeter road around the equestrian centre, the rally’s base. It will be easy for people from the city of Athens to come and watch this one, so we should get a good crowd. It’s a nice gravel road, but very tricky. There are some unseen junctions over crests and is a very fast stage. Although this stage is designed for spectators, we’ll be taking it very seriously because there is plenty to catch us out.
SS9/20 Imittos (11.44km) CANCELLED
SS10/14 Agii Theodori (48.88km)
This is the longest stage we’ve tackled so far this year. It’s difficult to describe this stage accurately because it contains absolutely everything. It’s got uphill rough bits, downhill rough bits, flat-out pieces, twisty sections, river crossings, dips and crests, places that are so narrow you can hardly squeeze the car through – you name it, this stage has got it. Once again, it will be survival of the fittest and is all about looking after the car. If you aren’t careful, the suspension and brakes will be shot by about half-distance. When we go through this stage for the second time on Saturday afternoon, the temperatures will be very high, because it will almost be the hottest point of the day. It will be more than 50 degrees Celsius inside the car. I think you’ll see some huge variations in stage times from the drivers on this stage. I believe the whole order of the rally will be determined when we’ve been through here twice. Punctures from sharp rocks might be a problem. This is the only round of the World Rally Championship where we are permitted to carry two spares, and we’ll decide on Friday whether that is necessary.
SS11/15 Loutraki (9.18km)
It looks simple on paper because it is only 9kms long, but this is without a doubt the most twisty stage of the rally. It’s hairpin after hairpin, many of them with double apexes, and there are also big drops on the inside of most of the corners. We will have to be very neat. At the start of the stage, however, we have a 2km flat-out section over very smooth bedrock. Then it goes into the twisty section all the way to the finish.
SS12/16 Agia Triada (10.80km)
This uses a stretch of road from SS4, albeit in the opposite direction. It is very hard on the car and the tyres: we’re driving on bedrock and the stage is strewn with some huge boulders I’ve ever seen.
SS18/21 Avlonas (20.00km)
The final day starts with a very fast, flowing stage through some farming territory north of Athens. It features some long corners and there aren’t many twisty bits. There are lots of concrete parapets through which water flows to allow the farmers to irrigate their crops. The character of this stage is radically different to the leg two stages.
SS19/22 Assopia (17.87km)
A new test for us. Again, it is situated in the farming area and is very similar to SS18, with lots of water ditches and ditches. There are long corners and crests, while the surface is more soil-based than leg two. The final day will be much kinder on the car than Saturday’s stages. The Sunday stages are almost like the tests we find in Finland. It’s a complete contrast to the previous day.
