Philippedes delighted following WRC debut.

"This has been the most amazing experience of my life!" The time is 17:13 on Sunday 8th June, and Greek driver George Philippedes has just driven over the finish ramp of the 50th Golden Acropolis Rally, the sixth round of the World Rally Championship and his first WRC event.

In a Mitsubishi Evo VI, Philippedes co-driven by his fellow Greek top co-driver Maria Pavli-Korre fulfilled two of his life-time ambitions: to compete on Greek soil, and make his debut outing on a WRC event.

With the support of his sponsors, Jetoil, Assos 25, Sparco Hellas/ARMA M, Decorim-Home Interiors and Ihokinisi-car audio, Philippedes and the team put an entry to compete in this year's Acropolis Rally in the N4 Class. The entry was accepted and the challenge for the young Greek driver commenced... Three Legs, 399.49 competitive km, 22 gruelling stages, 90 crews.

Philippedes' preparation had started two months prior to the start of the event preparing the car for one of the roughest rallies in the world. Apart from the heavy armouring that the car needed everything else logistical had to be accounted for; the transportation of the car and service van to Greece, the accommodation of the crew and service team, the catering, the sponsorship needed, the huge inventory of spare parts and equipment to service the car with and so on.

Due to Philippedes' lack of experience in a rally like the Acropolis hours and hours of briefing were needed in order to set the right battle plan for the rally. It was going to be a very long event that would strain not only the car but also the crew bearing in mind that they would spend an awful lot of time in a car cockpit with temperatures reaching 55o C.

As soon as the scrutineering had taken place on Thursday morning in Lamia the car had to be transported to 200km down the road to Athens where the ceremonial start was taking place next to the Acropolis temple. The car was off the start ramp and the rally had officially started! The car was taken back to Lamia overnight so that the crew could start on Friday morning.

The first day, found the pair setting a blistering pace with a third fastest time in GpN after Stage 1 despite their intention of driving the first stage with great caution in order to see what they were up against. It was of paramount importance to tackle the stages with a steady 75 per cent pace in order for the car to make it through the exceptionally rough stages of the first leg but at the same time not to fall too far behind the leaders in the class.

After the first group of stages the car returned back into service in a very good fourth place in class with no major problems. That was soon to change since half way through Stage 5 Philippedes reported that he had lost third gear and unfortunately nothing could be done until the end of day 45min service. With Stages 6 and 7 being very twisty and narrow that meant that the crew was about to lose a lot of time since they had to drive mostly in second gear. As expected the car entered Stage 8 the SSS in Lilea having dropped 1m 20s from the times they set during the first loop of same stages.

The Super special was to be cancelled due to excessive dust problems although that was to be confirmed after the stage was completed. After Stage 8 the car returned to service to undertake a gearbox change. The service crew did an excellent job changing the gearbox but unfortunately the team was penalised 1m10s, which dropped the pair down to seventh place.

Day Two was generally trouble free and most part of the day the pair set top three times in group N. Philippedes said: "The stages today are a lot smoother and faster and gradually I am getting more confident with the car and my notes. We had some problems with the suspension of the car but nothing too serious.

"Stage 15 was really good for us since our crew informed us mid way through the stage that we were leading the stage by 11s. That wasn't to last though since close to the end in a slippy left hand bend I stalled the car and couldn't get to start it. We lost there 13s so ended up third in that stage." The end of day found the pair in fifth place, 56s from third and 24s from fourth.

The final day of the event started with Philippedes setting a blistering pace and winning stage 18 New Tarzan 1 proving that he was on a charge while all the car ahead of him where on a battle for classification. Coming back in the service, the gap had closed to 14s from third and 2s from fourth. Going out again to do the same loop of stages Philippedes new he had to dig really deep to find those extra seconds that would take him to the desired third place.

Coming out of stage 20 he said: "Unfortunately twice in this stages I made the same mistake and in two very tight hairpins had to reverse, this has dropped us to 25 seconds from third although we managed to pass to fourth already. The next stage will have to be do or die!"

Entering stage 21, which was the same stage Philippedes was fastest in the morning, the pair pushed really hard knowing they had to cover 25s in only two remaining stages. While the splits were showing Philippedes was leading by 7s a very bumpy long straight made the Philippedes lose the turning point for a left-hander and eventually rolling the car in the air!

"It was a roll in third gear which meant the damage could have been enormous. Thank god there were only big bushes on the side of the road and the car landed on its wheels so we could continue without loosing too much time," noted Philippedes, "The unfortunate was that the windscreen was smashed very badly on my side and I couldn't see all the left hand bends.

"To top this up, in the roll a bottle of water fell on my foot tray and jammed under my foot petals making it very difficult to brake and change gears. We still managed to finish the stage fifth fastest but unfortunately were now back in fifth place."

The last stage found George finishing second fastest but unfortunately that wasn't enough to claim fourth again. They took 4seconds from fourth but unfortunately there were another 3s there.

Over the finish ramp Philippedes said: "I have just lived one of the most amazing experiences in my life. I do not regret a single mistake we did since it was for them that we ended up having so intense and exciting battles all day long in all three days. I know that if it wasn't for the 1m10s penalty on the first day we would have finished third but that doesn't worry me at all since it made our rally a lot more challenging.

"We came here wanting to finish in the top five and this is what we have achieved. I am very honoured to have managed to rally against proven drivers with lots of experience on this particular event. I am very happy with everything we have achieved and am now eager to come back next year and pick up were I left it! I would like to thank my sponsors Assos 25, Jetoil, Ihokinisi, Sparco and Decorim for having made this rally become a reality."

Having set one fastest-stage time, two second-fastest stage times, and eight third-fastest times, Philippedes left Athens to prepare for the Scottish rally which takes place this weekend and he will be competing in his usual 206 Super Cup.