On this day in... 1999

Burns had returned to the Prodrive-run squad for ’99 after three years with Andrew Cowans’ factory-blessed Mitsubishi Ralliart squad, with which he’d broken his duck on the Safari and followed it up with an end-of-year victory at home on Rally Great Britain.

He would be starting the #5 Impreza WRC99 sixth on the road in Greece, a position that would allow him to take advantage of the five ‘roadsweepers’ ahead of him. However, an early problem with the fly-by-wire electronic transmission caused by a water splash negated that advantage for Burns and long-time co-driver Robert Reid, the pair losing 20 seconds.

Tactics would soon come into play at the end of Leg 1’s eight stages as crews tried to avoid running first on the road, thus clearing them of stones for pursuers. Burns deliberately checked in late to a time control, thereby accruing time penalties that would move him down the order for the eight stages that made up Leg 2 the following day.

Out front, Burns’ fierce rival Colin McRae, who’d already won the Safari and in Portugal in his first season with Ford and the Focus WRC, struggled to hang on to his lead, such was the condition of the unswept roads. McRae quickly fell into the clutches of his rivals before suffering rally-ending transmission failure. 

Despite a time-sapping excursion and a repeat of the transmission problems of the previous day, Burns would enjoy a 17-second lead heading into the final day.

Running first on the road was far less of a drama on the five stages that made up the third and final leg and Burns won three of them to make sure of his first win for Subaru – by more than a minute from Toyota driver Carlos Sainz.

With Sainz’s teammate Didier Auriol, joint leader of the championship after Argentina, having retired the Corolla WRC early on in Greece, reigning World Champion Tommi Makinen sat alone at the top of the tree thanks to third place on a rally that had belonged, this time with no intra-team complications, to Richard Burns.

Acropolis Rally, 1999

1. Richard Burns (GB)/Robert Reid (GB) – Subaru Impreza WRC99, 4h21m21.2s

2. Carlos Sainz (E)/Luis Moya (E) – Toyota Corolla WRC, +1m01.3s

3. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN)/Risto Mannisenmäki (FIN) – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, +3m40.0s

4. Freddy Loix (B)/Sven Smeets (B) – Mitsubishi Carisma GT, +4m12.4s

5. Markko Martin (EE)/Toomas Kitsing (EE) – Toyota Corolla WRC, +8m41.5s

6. Leonidas Kirkos (GR)/John Stavropoulos (GR) – Ford Escort WRC, +13m56.5s

Photography courtesy of LAT Images

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