Report on the 2000 Acropolis WRC rally June 10th / Day 2 Day 2 of the Acropolis was a whole different story than the first. The stages were very hard to reach, even at 20km/h on these mountain roads can destroy a normal car's suspension. We had to leave at 6 in the morning to reach the stage, SS 7 Mendenitsa I, and since it was held on a Saturday thousands of spectators were expected, believe me they showed up. We parked our car on the road that links SS7 to SS8 Palaiohori-Eleftherohori (point 2 on the map below) and walked for 45 minutes down SS7 to find a nice spot on the location called "lakes" (lymnes in Greek). We were right where some of the stage's official observers were and were able to hear the official VHF channels with them. Just 2 hours before the first car was due we heard the stage would be cancelled because the fire trucks were not able to reach the stage due to the massive spectator attendance. The stage was finally run on time (that was a relief after the early wake up and the 3 miles walk under the burning sun...). We were located 4 kilometers towards the start of this, new for the Acropolis, stage. Our location is highlighted by the green star on the map. The part of the stage we were observing was composed of good, fast gravel mountain roads preceded and followed by very rough terrain. The following pictures were shot from this location:
Special Stage 7 Mendenitsa I
Special stage 7 was won by Colin McRae who raced through it in 19:58.5 (avg speed 84.26 which is amazing when you've seen the road on which the SS was held, believe me). Marcus Grönholm was second 4.1 seconds behind, Carlos Sainz was third 9.9 seconds behind, Petter Solberg was fourth 28 seconds behind, Richard Burns was fifth 37.3 seconds behind and Toni Gardemeister, minus his car's back right window, was sixth 42.6 seconds behind. Didier Auriol retired after this stage with a since he lost his front left wheel and would have to travel for 28km without it to reach the service area. All this stage's pictures are here. We then moved to SS8 Palaiohori-Eleftherohori, we had no choice but to go there since the road linking the two SS was closed until the end of SS8. This stage was also new to the Acropolis and is run on relatively fast mountain roads which are getting twisty and rougher towards the end of the stage. We were located at the beginning of a long radius flat corner at the spot marked by a green star on the map below.
Special Stage 8 Palaiohori-Eleftherohori The following pictures were shot from that area:
The stage was won by Richard Burns in 7:46.0 (avg. speed 82.7 km/h) one second ahead of Carlos Sainz. Marcus Grönholm was third 1.1 seconds behind, François Delecour was fourth 5.4 seconds behind, Colin McRae fifth 5.7 seconds behind while Greek driver (and multi-millionaire) Aris Vovos was sixth 7.4 seconds behind the leader. All this stage's pictures are here. At the end of day 2 the overall standings were as follows:
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