Acropolis Rally ‘not in jeopardy’

The organiser of the Acropolis Rally has guaranteed this year’s event will go ahead despite continued concerns regarding the financial state of Greek motorsport’s governing body.

There has been continued speculation that Greece’s ELPA is on the verge of going bankrupt. Pavlos Athanassoulas, director of Greece’s World Rally round, scotched such suggestions.

The Acropolis Rally is run by Celeritas, a private company with private investment. One of the primary areas of concern for event organisers in Greece is the potential loss of insurance ability if ELPA did go bankrupt.

“ELPA is not bankrupt,” said Athanassoulas. “These are very tough times in Greece right now. Roughly half of all companies in Greece are working through some very tough financial times and ELPA is in there.

“ELPA has some debts, but it is expected that these issues should be solved in the coming weeks. But the Acropolis Rally is, again, not affected – we have insurance for €10m which is not with ELPA.”

Athanassoulas confirmed the Loutraki-based event is in the third and final year of a contract made with ELPA, the Greek governing body, in 2011.

“There is no question about the Acropolis Rally,” he said. “It is 100 per cent safe for this season. Obviously, we cannot talk yet about next year, because this is outside of the deal made with ELPA, but we are already in discussions to extend the current contract.”

Athanassoulas added that Celeritas is also looking to extend its current contract to stay in the Peloponnese region.

This year’s event runs from June 30 until July 2.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/world-rally-championship-news/wrc/acropolis-rally-not-in-jeopardy

Narain Karthikeyan Ukyo Katayama Ken Kavanagh Rupert Keegan Eddie Keizan