00:02La scuola è stata la ralda di Walter Rawls' Lancia Rally
00:10e Henry Teuvonen' Rothman's Opel Manta
00:16Special stage 2 e un disastro already for the Audi team
00:20Michel Mouton has crashed out of the rally
00:22and Arivatanen's Opel is the first car through the tiny village of Lucisia
00:42Walter Rawls has won this rally twice before
00:45and he has a fine chance here of a record third win
00:48if his Lancia maintains the pace and withstands the battering
00:57Hannu Mikola, the world championship leader
00:59on the first stage he and co-driver Arnie Hurt
01:03stopped to change a punctured tyre
01:05completing the job unaided in under two minutes
01:08now they're fighting back
01:12it's still early in the morning
01:13but temperatures are already soaring into the high 80s
01:17in the cars the heat is near unbearable
01:19mantas are the worst
01:20their plastic bodies retain the heat
01:23inside it's 160 degrees Fahrenheit
01:30the rear engine Lancias are less affected
01:32engine heat is sucked away from the cockpit
01:35and a funnel device on the roof feeds cool air to the crew
01:42Stig Blomkrist is driving his first Acropolis rally
01:45but he's going well
01:49Jimmy McRae's Opel Manta is already suffering from an intermittent fault on the fuel pump
01:57and as the rally heads northwest towards Aitia and Kalambaka
02:01far up country
02:02so the heat and dust get even worse
02:08in the opening stages Lancia hold the first three positions
02:24and then the unthinkable rain
02:28violent storms flood the gravel roads in seconds
02:31all the crews welcome the drop in temperature
02:33but only Audi's four-wheel drive Quattro's can profit from the wet
02:37and Mikola is forcing his way back
02:39by the 12th special stage he's rested the lead back from Rawl
02:43who's having handling problems
02:55first of the Rothmans mantas is Ari Vatinen
02:58another two-time winner here
03:00like many others he suffered an early puncture
03:08McRae's fuel pump fault is the first of many mechanical problems
03:20Kenyan Shekha Mata's Nissan is 10th and struggling to stay in touch
03:28the rains and floods are the worst the rally has seen for many years
03:33Blomkrist Saudi has just overtaken Alen's Lancia
03:36which of all things has a broken windscreen wiper
03:52midnight at Kalambaka in northern Greece
03:54the end of a long day
03:56Mikola leads by 26 seconds
03:58and he's now pulling away from Rawl
04:02I don't know if it wasn't a big hit at all
04:07I don't know if it wasn't a big hit at all
04:11I think we have a toe in very much real
04:23it has to be that it's nothing wrong with the road
04:26I have in one puncture and what you say in thesis
04:30in taking clean in
04:32your wiper
04:32windscreen wiper
04:33it's broken
04:34I go 35 km in nothing
04:36in long stage
04:37after 5 km in broken
04:38stage is 40 km
04:41too many problems
04:43also puncture
04:43I come 11 km
04:45okay
04:46I hope tomorrow is a better day
04:50day 2
04:51one of the toughest in the history of the Acropolis
04:53on the return south
04:54Mikola is striving to increase his lead
04:56pushing the quattro hard over the long opening stages
05:02Rawl is hanging on to second place
05:04he's trying not to let Mikola get too far ahead
05:06but he knows he must also preserve his car
05:12and Blomkrist is only 1 minute 20 seconds behind Rawl
05:17after his windscreen wiper and puncture problems
05:20Alen has dropped from 1st to 4th
05:28Betiga in the 3rd Lancia is 5th
05:39Vattenen leads the conventional cars in 6th place in the Opel
05:43Henry Teuvenen in another Opel
05:45is some 4 minutes behind in 8th
05:50Teuvenen is now making a charge to improve on that
05:59his first target is McCray
06:01who's in 7th place in the other Opel
06:10Vattenen's rally was almost ended at this point
06:12by some mindless spectators
06:14here they've sprinkled an asphalt corner with gravel
06:17Vattenen hasn't spotted it
06:27The driver beckons for assistance
06:29Not surprisingly, he doesn't see the joke
06:48Vattenen's spin has cleared the road for Betiga
06:53and Shechemater's steady drive continues
06:57but most spectacular is the sensational Citroen Visa of Philippe Womberg
07:05It's now midnight in hot sticky Athens
07:08another 780 kilometers have been completed today
07:11there's another 730 to go
07:14McCray is a disappointed 8th
07:16after he was delayed on the run into the city
07:27We're on the race now
07:30We're going down the national road
07:31coming in through Athens
07:32and the back bearing and the diff burst
07:35through the prop shaft off
07:38so the weight and service coming
07:40and they've changed the temporary accident
07:43It has been, as usual in Acropolis, very tiring
07:47I really feel my hands are very short
07:49I feel I have done a long day's work now
07:51I'm ready for sleep
07:54Competition-wise, quite normal
07:57three punches which are not necessarily normal
08:00but I suppose part of Acropolis
08:02and we cost us time as they always would do
08:07but I don't know why it's going steady
08:09It's a major part of value now, do you think?
08:11Oh, the most difficult part of it
08:14but we have still 240 kilometers to go
08:18on the state season
08:19it's not really easy road to those side
08:22Very good for Hannu
08:23that he's first car tomorrow night
08:25we will have a lot of dust
08:26but anyway
08:28it's my job to try it once more
08:30to push him
08:31we are three cars
08:33and even if one get last
08:35it's no problem for lunch here
08:37it means I should try to push him
08:40and push him he does
08:42three, two, one, go!
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