Athens, the capital city of Greece, thrived as a city-state in the Hellenic era. It became the capital of the country in 1834 and has grown as the heart of Greece in deed as well as in name. The city hosted the first ever Olympic Games in 1896 and its presence in the field of cultural activities such as sport or art is well-recognised all over the world.

One of the classis events of the sport, the Acropolis Rally, has been held in Athens, Greece for years. The name Acropolis means a hilly place in the ancient city-state where a temple and a bastion were built in the Hellenic era. So the name itself gives us a reflection of the long history of Greece.

Under the banner of World Rally Championship (WRC), which is one of pinnacles of motor sports culture, the Production car World Rally Championship (PWRC) events are contended by the cars with strictly limited modifications only.

As for this event, Fumio Nutahara was absent because he was participating in a Japanese Rally Championship event. Therefore, four crews represented the ADVAN camp, Simone Campedelli in a Mitsubishi Lancer, Spyros Pavlides, Kristian Sohlberg and Leszek Kuzaj in their Subaru Imprezas.

Although the official testing on Monday was cancelled due to heavy rain, the weather was fine for the whole week afterwards and the high reached 30℃. The very rough surfaces of the Acropolis Rally were well-known, but it became even rougher than usual in some places.

Despite high expectations, the ADVAN users were brutally punished by the hostile conditions of the rally. In the SS4 on the first day, Sohlberg damaged the steering arm of his car and lost as much as 14 minutes. He marked the fastest time on the SS11 (9.18km) on the following day and displayed his speed and the potential of ADVAN rally tires, but eventually had to retire due to a drive shaft failure afterwards.

Kuzaj rolled his car in Leg 1 and, when he did it again in Leg 2, the car caught fire which forced him to withdraw on the spot. Pavlides also had to retire from this extremely tough rally.

Under such rigorous conditions, however, the promising young Italian driver Campedelli took his Lancer to the finish with a steady drive and ranked eighth in the PWRC.

"For the Acropolis, we brought the modified version of the tires that were developed for Cyprus where we won the event last year."

"Competitors had so many punctures at a record rate for a WRC event, but we didn't experience any problems with the pucture resistance of our tires. However, it was true that the event was quite tough on the tires because the surfaces were harder and the average speed was higher than that of Cyprus."

"Anyway, we could collect good data and information on the rougher surfaces. We are looking forward to challenge the Acropolis Rally again."