Ivan Kolev

Special GRReporter correspondent

Everything is ready hours before the 56th edition of Rally Acropolis – 7th round of the world rally championship in Loutraki.

The small tourist town is awaiting the big event. The town is situated on the east coast of the Korinthos bay and it is famous for its close proximity to Korinthos and to the ancient artifacts.

As it was expected, the readiness of the town is expressed firstly by “updating the prices.” The lowest price for two nights in a hotel during the world auto event reached ?250.

The local traders have not learned their lesson from their colleagues in Athens, who are still keeping a warm memory of the Olympic Games, when even the cheapest hotels “updated” their prices three times…and were left empty. And probably, just like every other host of a big event, they don’t know that the true fans of this manly sport prefer the camping Spartan services.

The forecast for the three race days is between 33⁰C and 36⁰C, which will make things worse for the drivers.  

At 09:00AM today (Tuesday June 9th) the teams will get familiar with the route and this will continue until 08:00PM tomorrow (June 10th).

The technical control is also scheduled for tomorrow and it will take place in the service park.

On Thursday June 11th at 08:00AM the shakedown will take place and the route will be 3100 meters long.

The opening ceremony of the Rally will take place at 08:30PM at the Korinthos strait.

The rally has 17 speed levels with 371,02km and total length of 1208,18km.

47 teams will start racing.

Following are the first 20 teams racing in Rally Acropolis 2009

1.     Sébastien Loeb              Citroen C4 WRC

2.     Mikko Hirvonen              Ford Focus WRC 2009

3.     Dani Sordo                    Citroen C4 WRC

4.     Henning Solberg             Ford Focus WRC 2008

5.     Petter Solberg                Citroen Xsara

6.     Jari-Matti Latvala            Ford Focus WRC 2009

7.     Matthew Wilson              Ford Focus WRC 2008

8.     Federico Villagra             Ford Focus WRC 2008

9.     Mads Ostberg                 Subaru Impreza 2008

10.  Sebastien Ogier             Citroen C4 WRC

11.  Evgeny Novikov             Citroen C4 WRC

12.  Conrad Rautehbach        Citroen C4 WRC

13.  Khalid Al Qassimi           Ford Focus WRC 2008

14.  Aris Vovos                     Subaru Impreza WRC 2008

15.  Nasser Al-Attiyah           Subaru Impreza WRX STI N14

16.  Armindo Araujo              Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9

17.  Patrik Sandell                Skoda Fabia S2000

18.  Martin Prokop                Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9

19.  Toshi Arai                      Subaru Impreza WRX STI N14

20.  Andis Neiksans               Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9