Subaru Rally Team USA is on the ground in Greece this week with driver Travis Pastrana for the legendary Acropolis Rally, round seven of the 15-event World Rally Championship. Pastrana, the two-time defending Rally America National Champion is entered in the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) and will be at the wheel of a Group N-spec 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX STI prepared by Vermont SportsCar. The Acropolis rally features rocky mountain roads and scorching heat making it one of the most demanding rounds in the WRC for rally car machinery, teams, and drivers.
The opening leg of the Acropolis will utilize roads north and west of Athens. The second day is the longest of the event and takes competitors west of the city, passing close to the Corinth Canal, while the final leg on Sunday will return to roads north and west of Athens. Crews will run a total of 20 stages that cover over 211 miles, nearly double the competitive miles that Pastrana traverses on a typical Rally America National Championship round.
Acropolis is the 2nd PWRC round of 2008 for SRT USA with Pastrana again partnered with his new co-driver, former WRC Champion Derek Ringer. The Scottish born Ringer has competed in the Acropolis Rally several times before and is a previous winner, taking the top spot in 1996 with the legendary Colin McRae driving. “It is still a learning experience for him [Pastrana] because the nature of the WRC events are vastly different and more difficult than the American rounds,” said Ringer. “We are going to stick to our game plan of running a clean rally and pushing a bit harder as the conditions allow.”
Pastrana’s confidence was buoyed at the last PWRC round in Argentina after setting highly competitive stage times on several stages. “I’m really looking forward to the Acropolis and having Derek (Ringer) at my side, his experience here should help me a lot,” said Pastrana. “In the last PWRC round in Argentina, we were able to finally set some strong stage times but it was only on a couple stages where we had clean runs. Here in Greece I just want to do more of that, I need more clean runs and I need to stay out of trouble as best as I can!”
Fans can follow the rally live at www.wrc.com beginning early Friday morning.
Subaru Rally Team USA is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), DC Shoes, BFGoodrich Tires, Boost Mobile, Recaro, Alpinestars, Motul, Exedy, Greddy, PIAA and Vermont SportsCar.