Acropolis Rally Greece will be a key moment in the World Rally Championship title race. If someone wants to catch Thierry Neuville for the biggest prize of all, they need to make serious inroads on the Acropolis’ rough and rocky roads.
But spare a thought for the field of aspiring young drivers in the Junior WRC ranks. If you think Sébastien Ogier, Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans need to pontificate over risk versus reward hunting down Neuville, the title protagonists aboard Rally3s have even more on the line to think about.
It’s the season finale. Double points are on offer. And a paid-for drive in WRC2 next season is in the offing. Between overall positions and stage-win bonuses (which aren’t doubled), a whopping 65 points are on offer to be scored on an event widely considered a car-breaker.
Mathematically speaking, 11 drivers arrive in Lamia with a chance at the title. Realistically, there are two title protagonists, two dark horses and a raft of long-shot outsiders.
Rough roads in Greece are made even tougher by the passage of Rally1 and Rally2 cars before the JWRC field arrives
Those two protagonists were not drivers expected to be right at the sharp end this season. FIA Rally Star, a talent search to find drivers from all corners of the globe and give them a chance at rally stardom regardless of background, has somewhat unexpectedly delivered two Junior WRC title contenders from year one: Romet Jürgenson and Taylor Gill.
The contenders
Jürgenson leads Gill by eight points – 12 if you consider that Gill has to drop his eighth place in Sweden if he does better in Greece – with pre-season title favorite Diego Domínguez Jr a further 28 points behind, level with Ali Türkkan. That might sound like a lot; it’s not when double points come into play, especially on a rally as rough as the Acropolis.
Rally Star project manager Jérôme Roussel knows the drivers his team of experts selected for the Junior WRC chance are in a tough spot.
“I was a bit nervous when I discovered the calendar for this Junior WRC season that we had Sardinia and Greece, plus Finland…I was not wrong to be nervous, because the last events have been so eventful that you cannot consider that this is done,” Roussel told DirtFish.
“I have seen so many dramas, especially in Greece, to be relaxed. We have two drivers at the front but we always say that anything can happen. More than ever on these rallies, this is the truth, especially with these cars on a terrain which is destroyed by the Rally1s and Rally2s [passing through first]. You cannot be relaxed. When we saw what happened in the previous rallies, it’s impossible to make big calculations.”
Jürgenson flew to victory on season's second round in Croatia
It’s been a rollercoaster ride in the Junior WRC title race. Jürgenson looked in command after only two rounds, building a big advantage with second in Sweden and a maiden victory on Croatian asphalt – but he hit a rock on the road section in Sardinia and then went off avoiding a rock in Finland, delivering a pair of no-scores (except for his stage-win bonuses). Domínguez recovered from a first-stage puncture to win Sardinia and Gill won in Finland, while Türkkan has been rapid but missed the season opener and crashed out of the lead in Croatia.
The points leader
All that drama from the opening four rounds has set up a thrilling finale. Jürgenson, still the leader of the pack despite two retirements on the bounce, will be hoping whatever bad luck was still in his system has been expended on Paide Ralli earlier this month, his home event back in Estonia.
“Everything happened, basically,” Jürgenson said of his Paide outing that ended with third place in class, almost two minutes down, “We had engine problems, then we had problems with ourselves, let’s say: we did some little mistakes, then we went wide, had to clean the grass in the front grill during this stage, so hopefully everything has happened!”
He’s both the leader and arguably the title favorite. While he no-scored in Italy and Finland, he led both rallies and has 27 stage wins, triple what next-best Domínguez has notched up. Bonus points from those stage wins are what’s kept him leader of the pack ever since Croatia despite his double DNF – and he has no regrets about being willing to take risks and push on.
The Estonian scored nine points for his stage wins in Finland, despite crashing out of the event
“I think that shows that our approach was right,” said Jürgenson. “For example in Croatia, where we actually were leading quite comfortably, still we tried to push and we maximized the stage win points. I think looking back now, I can really be happy about this decision.”
His main drawback heading to the season finale is slow, technical gravel stages not being the strongest weapon in his arsenal. A win in Finland would have meant a much more comfortable run in Greece: now Jürgenson’s going to have to push himself and find something extra to ensure he can win the title.
“In general, I think the lower average speeds for me is still… let’s say, not a struggle, but still not committed enough or I can’t really trust that the car will manage it,” Jürgenson explained. “So for me, it’s still a bit more difficult than the faster roads. But the last day in Sardinia [where he won three out of four stages] showed that if we tweak our style a bit, then we should be good. I tend to be too smooth sometimes in the slow sections, so maybe I just need to be a bit more aggressive with my driving to achieve faster stage times in these lower speed places.”
The challenge from within
Gill moved hemispheres to chase a world championship chance, leaving his native Australia behind and relocating to Finland. A year and a half later, winning what has now become his home-away-from-home round thrust him right into the middle of the title fight.
While Jürgenson was trying to win his home event in Estonia, Gill was spannering away on rental cars at the Lahti Historic Rally. When he’s not chasing the WRC dream, he’s working on rally cars for Finnish preparation firm Dogbox; his boss is Jukka Hara, who also happens to be 2021 Junior WRC champion Sami Pajari’s manager.
Gill came out on top in his adopted homeland
“Sami of course has been a help in giving advice, as have lots of other people in Finland,” said Gill. “Actually, it was funny because I probably didn’t realize how many connections I’d made across Finland until we were at Secto Rally Finland this year and it almost seemed like every connection I’ve ever made in Finland was in the same place at the same time!”
A punishing first half of the year began with a double puncture in Sweden. His fortunes picked up with second place behind Jürgenson in Croatia, only for Italy to deliver a power steering failure on the Friday and a broken wheel bearing that damaged the brakes on Saturday. He reached the finish regardless each time – and never lost sight that a run at the title remained an outside possibility the entire time.
“I’ve always kept an eye on it from the word go,” said Gill. “I mean, ultimately, this year was, I guess both for Romet and myself and all the other Rally Star drivers, about getting the experience and building the speed and so on.
“All year our position has been still relatively in the fight. If we got to Greece and were in a position where the championship is possible then that’s always kind of been the goal. It was looking like it would be getting harder and harder when we had those issues in Sardinia. I’ve never really lost sight of the championship but my focus has just been on knocking away the finishes, getting the points and gaining the experiences.”
The Austrlian's focus has been on maximizing experience while keeping one eye on the championship
Taking stage points accrued in Greece out of the equation, Gill winning the Acropolis regardless of where Jürgenson finishes would give him the points needed to steal the crown – and a fully-funded WRC2 drive for all rounds next year – from Jürgenson’s hands. But as he had been earlier in the season, he’s relying on patience to reward him in Greece.
“It’s almost hard to bear when I’m a driver and I want to drive fast and sink my teeth into the car on the stages,” added Gill. “But I think the overall speed almost has to be forgotten a little bit in this rally. Of course, we can’t drive too slowly because anything can happen, but we have to be there at the end.
“I know that we can be consistent. We just never give up no matter the circumstances. But of course, we still have a bit of a job to do if we want to win the championship. Likewise, we might end up in situations or times across the rally where we can afford to back off and take it easy and drive around the rocks instead of over them. So, yeah, it’ll be a big game of strategy.”
The outsiders
Domínguez and Türkkan are well poised to sweep in and take the title away should both the lead Rally Star drivers run into trouble. And further back, Petr Borodin, Norbert Maior, Tom Rensonnet and Max Smart, third-best of the Rally Star drivers so far this season, can mathematically pull off a miracle.
Türkkan impressed by finishing second in both Sardinia and Finland
One of the Rally Star duo out front might win the title. Or neither might. Either way, Jürgenson and Gill leading the way into the season finale was not part of the plan.
“By both of them being in contention for the title before the last round, they are exceeding our expectations,” said Roussel.
“Romet told me during the winter [pre-season], maybe it’s possible to win [the title]. And I told him, yes, nothing is forbidden. Let’s see. After Sweden, we knew that it was possible to do it. It was the same for Taylor. Even if Taylor came back from Sweden with a smaller number of points, his level of performance was enough to consider that he could be a rally winner and maybe a championship contender. So they exceeded [expectations] in their overall results and also by the opportunities they could create.
Will Gill (left) or Jürgenson (right) be celebrating in Greece on Sunday?
“We have two drivers fighting, and of course, no team orders. They both have to play their own chance. So we’ll have to manage this also because one may be super-happy on Sunday night and one may be a bit despondent.”
In one sense, there’s not as much pressure as you might expect. If either of that duo wins the title this week, they get a fully-funded season in WRC2. If they don’t there’s a good chance they’ll be back again next season in the Juniors.
But it’s undoubtedly better to do it now. Especially as the winner of the season-opener may come back to haunt them. Johansson was imperious during his cameo at home. But last week he wrapped up the Junior ERC title, securing him a full-season prize drive in Junior WRC next year.
A whopping 65 points are on the table in Greece for Jürgenson, Gill, Domínguez, Türkkan and co to hoover up, with the leader on 69. Anything can happen. And based on the first four rounds, anything will happen.
