Hyundai and Toyota have had their pre-Acropolis Rally tests affected by the fires still burning in the central Greece region this week.
Both teams have had to switch locations in an effort to work and test within local government guidelines and safety protocols. Hyundai postponed by two days and began running on Thursday, with Toyota facing similar issues.
Both were running in the Loutraki area.
Both teams were scheduled to test on Friday but are now looking for an alternative location as they had their tests postponed on Friday when local government officials closed down running in the region.
M-Sport begins its running further north in the country on Saturday.
The pre-event testing is run privately with agreements made between the local land owners and the teams themselves.
Asked for his thoughts on any potential impact from the fires on next month’s Lamia-based Acropolis Rally Greece, event director Pavlos Athanassoulas told DirtFish: “As we speak there is absolutely no impact on any of the roads or any aspect of the route for the rally.
“Of course, we are in close collaboration with the prefectures of Peloponnese Region and Central Greece where the rally is taking place. We are not concerned right now – we believe the situation will be very quickly solved and the fires will be dealt with. This is not a local problem for Greece, this is a global problem that many countries are facing.
“The fire fighters are fighting these fires with all their manpower and strength and we just want to help them in any way possible.”
Acropolis Rally Greece starts on Thursday September 7. Temperatures in the region are still peaking around 95F in the day and show little sign of dropping considerably into next month. There are, however, thunderstorms which are offering some potential respite and rainfall.
Fires threatening rounds of the world championship is nothing new – the final round of the 2019 season was lost when rapidly spreading fires engulfed sections of the Rally Australia route.
