Cándido Carrera reveals the secret to riding the Greek rollercoaster

Brutal. That’s the only way to describe how the Acropolis Rally feels from inside a rally car: a bit like being trapped inside a tumble dryer filled with rocks on a full speed drying cycle. Somehow, the co-drivers still have to read pace notes – despite the noise and the dust and the heat – with the huge responsibility of ensuring that their drivers stay on the road.

One person who has mastered this art better than most is Dani Sordo’s co-driver Cándido Carrera, with two podiums and one fourth place from his last three participations on the Acropolis.

So what’s his secret to riding the Greek rollercoaster? “There’s not one particular thing,” says the 44-year-old Spaniard. “It’s true that this is one of the roughest rallies in the WRC. But I don’t have any special tricks; I’m just used to gripping the pace note book and concentrating on what’s on the page. It’s a little bit harder when the book moves around more, but as long as I don’t have many notes to correct, it’s not really any different to the other rallies.”

The other hallmark of the Acropolis is extreme heat. To cope with that, for about a couple of weeks before the rally, Cándido seeks out the hottest times of the day to train. To hydrate during the actual rally, he uses electrolytes – which replace the minerals lost in sweat: “the same stuff you take if you have a stomach ache,” as he puts it. “This really help me so I’m lucky in that respect, as it doesn’t work for everyone. I’m also not the sort of person who always has to drink a lot, so that probably gives me certain advantage.”

He may be cool and he’s focused, but Cándido is not just a machine. The Acropolis Rally means a lot to him on a personal and emotional level, as it’s an event that he first contested (and won) back in 2013. There have been several other important milestones in Greece since.

“Acropolis was the first gravel rally I did in the Junior World Rally Championship, which we won by more than a minute,” he says. “Eight years later, it was also the first rally I did with Hyundai in the WRC, which was incredibly special – as it meant that I had finally arrived at the very top level. With only 10 seats or so available, that meant a lot. I like the atmosphere in Greece a lot; it’s very Mediterranean and reminds me of being home in Spain actually, the people are really warm and welcoming.”

Unlike the drivers who do the full championship, Dani and Cándido only contest selected events, with their last rally being Sardinia in June – where they finished on the podium. Does having a part-time programme make the job harder for a co-driver?

“On the one hand, the more you do the better it is, but you can still prepare a lot by working at home,” explains Cándido. That work consists mainly of looking at videos and practising pace notes. Cándido even works on his enunciation to be sure of reading  notes clearly, despite the quick-fire nature of the Spanish language. So he doesn’t believe that the downtime affects his performance: “In the end it’s something in your blood,” he points out. “A bit like riding a bike.”

This rally is going to be a memorable one, as it’s the Spanish duo’s last event of the year. Bur for Cándido, it’s just business as usual. “There’s not one rally I do that’s particularly special for me, as they are all special,” he says. “Right from the very start of my career at national level, I’ve always given it everything.”

There’s a very clear mission to accomplish in Greece, with Hyundai leading both championships going into the event. “We’re clearly in a strong position as a team and our job is to support Thierry and Hyundai in the quest to win,” explains the Spanish co-driver. “We’re very focused on that.”

But it’s not going to be easy. More than 300 kilometres of the world’s roughest gravel stages lie ahead, with the crews spending more than12 hours in the car on Saturday’s marathon leg alone. As Cándido concludes: “It’s a proper, old school rally.”