Acropolis Rally entry list published

The organisers of the Acropolis Rally of Greece, round seven of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship, have published the entry list for the event.

A total of 62 crews from 29 countries are entered on the rally, which begins from the Acropolis in Athens on 29 May.

World Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen heads a field of 17 World Rally Cars, representing all of the teams competing in this year’s manufacturers’ contest. Hirvonen will be partnered at the BP-Ford Abu Dhabi team by Jari-Matti Latvala - the team’s other driver eligible to score manufacturers’ title points - while Khalid Al Qassimi will drive a third Ford Focus RS WRC.

The Total Citroen, Suzuki, and Subaru teams will field their regular two-car squads, but there are changes to the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford, and Munchi’s Ford teams. Having run two cars on the most recent round in Sardinia, Stobart is back to full strength in Greece, with Gigi Galli and Henning Solberg nominated as points scorers, and Matthew Wilson in a third car. At the Munchi’s team Federico Villagra will be joined by Greek Rally legend Aris Vovos who will tackle the event in the second Ford Focus RS WRC.

Lining up alongside the manufacturer entries are privateers Urmo Aava and Conrad Rautenbach in their Citroen C4 WRCs and Mads Ostberg who is driving a 2007 specification Subaru Impreza WRC.

The rally also counts as the third round of the 2008 Production Car World Rally Championship (P-WRC) and with the exception of Fabio Frisiero (car number 47) all the other competitors have nominated Greece as one of their six events of 2008.

The 27 full-time P-WRC crews will be joined on the Acropolis by two guest drivers, Panayiotis Hatzitsopanis and Labros Athanassoulas, both of whom will drive Subaru Imprezas.