Another's joy (when we still had rally sport)

What Bulgaria wrote 20 years ago after the most prestigious start in our country – Rally Bulgari magazin de piese auto online.

Another's joy (when we still had rally sport)

The tradition of our drivers not being able to win the Bulgaria Rally was also followed in the 36th edition of our biggest car race.

FIAT and Renault stars Giandomenico Basso and Simon Jean-Joseph achieved what they had come to the Bulgaria Rally for – first and second place in the general classification. Even when the entries were submitted, it was clear that the two were the main contenders for victory and their other rivals would have to rely on their problems to beat them. The scenario developed completely as expected – the two pulled ahead from the start of the first long section and began to build up an advantage over the main group. And the differences between the two remained small until the fifth section – a few seconds or parts of them. But in the fifth stage, Jean-Joseph had a flat tire, in a place where, in his opinion, this should not have happened and lost 50 seconds. This pinned him in second place, with a fairly significant gap from Basso. The Frenchman did not give up the fight until the end, but the only thing he managed to do was to halve the leader’s advantage. This was not enough, because Giandomenico controlled the course of the race, did not take unnecessary risks and let Jean-Joseph closer to him a little less, but never dangerously close.

– I need to be as close as possible to Basso, if he also has some problem, this will allow me to regain first place – said Jean-Joseph at the end of the first day.

But that didn't happen and the Italian took his first victory of 2005, while Jean-Joseph recorded his first second place. For both, the Bulgaria rally proved to be the most successful event of the season, as in the previous three rounds of the European Championship they had problems with the competition and remained far from victories.

After the Bulgarian drivers were left out of the battle for the lead, the strongest of them focused on the fight for third place – the last position on the podium. Several drivers took part in it – Yasen Popov, Dimitar Iliev, Georgi Geradzhiev, Radoslav Kozlekov and Krum Donchev. At the beginning of the first long stages, OMV driver Popov fell behind after a flat tire, then had problems with the "car" and ended up at the end of the points zone. In the first four stages of Saturday, Kozlekov managed to fight for third place, but only a few seconds separated him from his pursuers Geradzhiev and Iliev. Then Geradzhiev jumped to third, and at the end of the day he was overtaken by Iliev. National champion Krum Donchev also participated in this fight, but until the end of the first day, when he dropped out due to a gearbox failure. Before that, Krum climbed to 4th place and became the second Bulgarian after Popov to win a stage during the race. Sunday's stages brought third place in the final to Iliev, who managed to cope with Geradzhiev in the last two stages. Before that, Kozlekov was eliminated, who hit the guardrail. In 10th and 11th out of a total of 13 Geradzhiev caught up with Iliev and overtook him, but in the last two Iliev counterattacked and regained third place. According to Geradzhiev, he lost the fight in the last stages due to a wrong weather forecast, as he expected it to rain. Something that did not happen.

Geradzhiev and Iliev were also involved in a dispute during and after the final of the race regarding compliance with the rules. The team of the Plovdiv driver revealed that on Saturday Iliev's car ran out of fuel and was pushed by a colleague on the way to the service area, as well as that he received fuel outside the permitted area. The next day the dispute continued due to the claim that Iliev entered the service area with unmarked tires, a violation that was also seen by the FIA observer. Due to problems with unmarked tires last year, the winner of Group N in the Hebros Rally, Geradzhiev, was downgraded, and thus lost a chance for the national title. It was won by Iliev in this group. After the final, Geradzhiev filed a contest, which was rejected, but Georgi will ask the BFAS to review the case. Last year he was punished in a similar scenario – there was no formal finding of his violation after the final of the Hebros Rally, but later, after the signature of other pilots, the BFAS decided to punish him. Now he is on the other side of the barricade, and his place has been taken by Dimitar Iliev. The outcome is yet to come.

Car parts AutoPower
Car parts AutoPower

The tradition of our drivers not being able to win the Bulgaria Rally was also followed in the 36th edition of our biggest car race

FIAT and Renault stars Giandomenico Basso and Simon Jean-Joseph achieved what they had come to the Bulgaria Rally for – first and second place in the general classification