Starts 2.5 km above the village of Elatia, towards Vasilika-Rengini. The first 4.5 km are uphill, on a relatively good road surface with consecutive hairpins. 2kms of very fast downhill follow this section until it reaches a u-turn (left) towards Rengini. At 290 meters there is a water splash. Up until the finish, the remaining 4.6 km are highly technical
Marko martin and Elatia
Elatia in the Greece round of the World Rally Championship has a place in the history books being the stage where Marko Martin and Michael Park’s bonnet famously popped up mid-stage.
Marko Martin had joined the Ford World Rally Team in 2002 and had led much of the Acropolis Rally Greece that same year but a shredded tyre was to drop him 3′ 30” and put him out of contention.
Heading into the Acropolis a year later in 2003, Marko Martin was still to win a round at the sport’s top level and was determined to rectify it.
Martin started the rally well. With Loeb and McRae hitting problems early Martin was starting Elatia – Zeli the 5th stage of the first leg of the event Martin held a slender 1.4 second lead over his team mate, a surprisingly hard charging Francois Duval. The stage was going as normal until around half way when the crew hit a compression and the car’s bonnet flew up. Rather than losing time stopping to fix the problem Martin and Park pressed on. Marko could barely see 40 to 50 meters ahead below the bonnet and had to rely fully on his pace notes. The lack of visibility wasn’t the only problem, however, with the bonnet blocking the roof vent resulting in the car becoming unbearably hot.
The sight of Martin and Park driving the stage with the bonnet up has become an iconic image and amazingly only cost him 6 seconds to stage winner Harri Rovanperä, Martin went on to claim the first of his 5 WRC victories with Park alongside.