The Acropolis Rally is one of the oldest and most important car races in the world, characterized by difficult and demanding dirt tracks for drivers and vehicles. It started to be organised by ELPA in 1951 and is now part of the World Rally Championship (WRC). It is considered one of the most demanding and competitive rallies in the championship.

Car racing in Greece, which had begun tentatively in the mid-1920s on the initiative of the Hellenic Touring and Automobile Club (ELPA, a member of the FIA since 1928), was naturally interrupted in the 1940s during World War II and the subsequent Civil War in Greece.

It all started in 1951, from an idea of a group of drivers and with the help of Shell a 1,923 km race was organised. One of its founding members, as president of the Hellenic Automobile and Touring Club (ELPA), was Panathinaikos player Apostolos Nikolaidis. The race started in Athens and passed in turn through the cities of Tripoli, Larissa, Thessaloniki, Serres, Kavala, Thessaloniki with the finish in Athens.

It all started in 1951, from an idea of a group of drivers and with the help of Shell, a 1,923-kilometre race was organised. One of its founding members, as president of the Hellenic Automobile and Touring Club (ELPA), was Panathinaikos player Apostolos Nikolaidis. The race started in Athens and passed in turn through the cities of Tripoli, Larissa, Thessaloniki, Serres, Kavala, Thessaloniki with the finish in Athens.

In November 1952, the proposal of Apostolos Nicolaides to give an international character to the organization of the ELPA race that had been held the same year, and to rename it “Acropolis”, found fertile ground. With this objective, the “1st International Rally Acropolis” started 71 years ago today, on 29 May 1953, with the participation of 26 crews (19 Greek and 7 foreign).

The competitors crossed with their cars almost the whole of mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, and returned to Athens on the 31st of the month, passing through nine checkpoints. The cars had to cover a distance of 1,720 kilometres on asphalt and dirt roads in mainland Greece, but only six of them saw the chequered flag at the finish line in Athens. The winner was Nikos Papamichael in a Jaguar with Spyros Dimitrakos as co-driver. The “Acropolis” from its very first event showed its tough character and began to methodically build its reputation.

Our national race takes place mainly on the dusty and rough dirt roads of the mountainous Central Greece, usually during the hot Greek summer. The Acropolis Rally is known worldwide as an extremely tough race for drivers and cars. The event was won by the late Scottish driver Colin McRae with 5 chequered flags and in the manufacturers’ category by Ford with 17.