Young Australian International rally driver Brendan Reeves returns to the World Rally Championship this weekend in Greece with an eye on victory in the WRC Academy category.
Reeves, who spent the last weekend at the FIA Institute's Young Driver Excellence Academy in Austria, sit second in the series after the opening event in Portugal and will tackle the rough stages of the Acropolis in southern Greece.
It's because of the rough road conditions that the Academy competitors, in their Ford Fiesta R2s, will only be contesting the morning stages on both Friday and Saturday of the event. Competitors in the main WRC field will repeat each morning's stages in the afternoon, but the conditions are expected to be too difficult on the identical 2WD Fiestas.
Reeves and co-driving sister Rhianon Smyth, who will celebrate their 50th event together, will have a short pre-event test on Thursday morning before the rally gets underway later that afternoon.
“We've been doing our Reconnaissance of the stages the last couple of days and there are some really unbelievably rough sections,” said Reeves.
“The roads are also changing all the time throughout the stage with many changing surfaces. We are doing our recce of Friday's stages today and then we will be ready for the event.”
Rally Acropolis starts on Thursday evening with a Ceremonial Start followed by a night stage of approximately 25 kilometres. Crews will then contest five stages on Friday morning and another four on Saturday morning before the WRC Academy winner is presented with their trophy on Saturday afternoon.