Rally Greece – The WRC comes to town

For several years, the organization of a rally du WRC no longer responds primarily to sporting issues. The economic aspect plays an increasingly important role. More than ever, a WRC round is a political or promotional tool to get people talking about a country, a region or a city.

Returning to Greece after 8 years of absence, the Acropolis did not escape this obligation with a departure ceremony at the foot of the Acropolis in the heart of the capital and a first time clock traced around Syntagma Park very close to the Parliament. In addition to Jean Todt, the President of the FIA, a large number of personalities such as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the deputy for sport Lefteris Avgenakis, who campaigned a lot for the event, and other "oils" were present for wave the flag.

© DPPI

Athens being located more than 200 km south of Lamia where the service park is located, this trip annoyed everyone, because it required enormous logistics. You have to bring the cars, but also provide accommodation for the crews and team members who have made the trip. At a time when the WRC is looking to save money, didn’t this little “excursion” into town entail additional expenses? This is certainly the case, but offering the WRC to a public who could not go to the real special stages or who did not even know that the rally was organized was not an investment that the discipline could not do without. ? With the pandemic, demonstrations are rare and it was not surprising to note that the 0,98 km piece of asphalt which had been chosen for this SS1 had attracted a large crowd. Everything was also broadcast live on a free channel on television at a time when in France there are generally games.

Although it must be recognized that this ersatz special was aesthetically very ugly and sportingly quite lousy, that was not the main point. It confirmed that the Acropolis was back on the WRC stage. It was not the first time (nor the last!) that the World Cup visited a metropolis, attempts having been made in Mexico (in Mexico City in 2017) or in Argentina (in Buenos Aires in 2007). If these experiments had not been successful, that of Athens would not remain as a bad memory. The decision to send the crews from Athens instead of forcing the entire caravan to return to Lamia was a good idea on paper, but it required the teams to send some of their staff to supervise the change areas. tires… which also has a cost!

At the same time, the Lamia service park found itself completely deserted since the competitors were not expected to put their wheels back on there before 19:40 p.m. While waiting for the cars to return, the mechanics were able, under the returning sun, to carry out the overhaul of the reconnaissance cars. When the pandemic was not there, the question that arose in certain teams was why move a heavy structure to accommodate VIPs... when there is nothing to show them! For several seasons the WRC has been looking for the best solution to satisfy all parties (crews, manufacturers, organizers, promoter, FIA, etc.) and the Acropolis has demonstrated that we still need to work to achieve this.

Loïc Rocci, in Athens