The newly formed crew of Dimitar Iliev and Petar Stoychev won the anniversary rally “Bulgaria”, after an exceptional struggle and dramatic events on Sunday.
For the second day, the competitors would compete on the stages around Varna, with the crews having to go through the classics Aladja Manastir and Sindel twice each, before finishing with the city stage through the streets of the Sea Capital.
The day started with a fragile lead of 2.6 seconds in favor of Miroslav Angelov/Nedyalko Sivov over Dimitar Iliev/Peter Stoychev. The two crews literally traded hundreds and stage wins throughout the first day and kept the fans on edge. In Special Stage 14 “Sindel”, Angelov made a mistake and spun on the exit of the macadam section, which cost him over 20 seconds and the first position two stages before the finish of the race. Despite the attack on the second pass of the same stage, Angelov was unable to get as close as possible to Iliev and Stoychev before the final stage. In it, the Megaport Racing crew made another mistake when spinning around the tires and ended up finishing 10.1 seconds behind the winners.
The Romanian crew of Prorally Team Brasov managed to minimize the damage from the penalty received on the first day of competition and managed to return to the last position on the podium, ahead of Jordan Atanasov and Yanaki Yanakiev.
The ART Racing tandem was the best performing Varna crew taking the win in the ERT 2 class and fourth place in the general classification.
Andrei Girtofan/Doru Vraja (Subaru Impreza), made their first race abroad in an RC2 car taking second place in the ERT 2 category and fifth overall.
Hungary’s Gergo Dudas/Kristian Chabo (Peugeot 208 R2) were undisputed all weekend and were arguably the fastest crew in the single engine axles as well as in the RC4 class.
Stanislav Vladimirov and Chavdar Sabev (Opel Astra) had a tough start to the race – technical problems in Special Stage 2 “Devnia” sent them back, but they managed to fight off Anton Titov/Dinko Georgiev, taking victory in RC3 and finishing seventh overall.
Anton Titov/Dinko Georgiev (Citroen DS3 R3T) started strongly but were unable to match the pace of the Provadiy-Sliven crew finishing second in RC3 and eighth overall.
The young hope Denis Stanchovski with navigator Mladen Karchev made a very good debut behind the wheel of the Peugeot 208 R2 taking the second place in RC4 and the ninth position in the general classification.
Tenth came Tihomir Stratiev and Zdravko Popov (Ford Fiesta Proto), who gained a significant number of positions after Saturday’s technical problems with the broken half-axle. Stratiev’s adaptation to his new car was more than successful and he recorded some strong results in the speed sections.
The third place in RC3 and eleventh in the general goes to Diana Stoyanova/Ivanela Ivanova (Honda Civic). The two ladies were perfect in every way and deservedly earned their place on the podium in the class.
Group E had the most drama in the competition. The favorites for the victory Kalin Benchev/Alexander Spirov dropped out at the start after a technical problem in the rear differential of their Subaru Impreza N14. In the first section of the rally, the crew of Yasen Obretenov/Kaloyan Shantanov also dropped out of the battle, after a serious accident.
Thus, the leadership was taken by Todor Atanasov/Vladimir Vladimirov (VAZ 2108), who on Saturday even finished in seventh position in the general classification. A broken clutch at the start of Special Stage 13 “Aladzha Monastery” 2 deprived them of the group victory and an impressive place in the general classification. Thus, the group winners are Radu Ionut Zabava and Janos Sos from Romania with Peugeot 207 RC.