2003: Märtin Won the Acropolis After His Hood Blocked the View

The Ford Focus came out of a compression and its hood flew up across the windshield. Markko Märtin could still see a little road through the gap, but the roof vent was blocked. In the heat of the Acropolis Rally, losing that air would become as serious a problem as losing the view.

Märtin and co-driver Michael Park were leading the 2003 event in Greece. They had been close to a breakthrough there before. A puncture had cost Märtin the lead the previous year, and his first World Rally Championship victory was still waiting.

Now it was the fifth stage, Elatia to Zeli, and roughly twelve miles remained with the hood in the way. They did not stop to put it down.

Park could see underneath it from his lower seat, but Märtin had a shorter view from behind the wheel. The pace notes became essential. He had to place the car for bends he could not yet see clearly, listening very carefully to Park’s pace notes.

The heat kept building. The same hood that cut off the view had cut off the cooling air. Years later, Märtin remembered being close to collapse by the time they reached the stage end.

They completed the test. The rally was not over, and the car still needed attention. Back at service the crew cleaned dust from the engine after its unexpected exposure. Märtin and Park stayed in the fight.

Their eventual winning margin over Carlos Sainz was 46 seconds on the combined rally times. It was Märtin's first WRC event victory, achieved with Park in the new Focus RS WRC 03.

That margin was the result of the whole rally, not a duel at a finish line. The part that made the win memorable had happened days earlier, on gravel, with a hood where the windshield view should have been and Park's notes helping Märtin find the next corner.