Rally Bulgaria

Rally Bulgaria (Рали България) is the most prestigious and also the oldest rally event in Republic of Bulgaria. It was confirmed for the 2010 World Rally Championship season as the seventh of all thirteen planned events. Year 2010 was also the first and so far the only one that Rally Bulgaria has been in the World Rally Championship, having previously hosted races for the European Rally Championship instead. The application of the country was accepted by the FIA despite the fact that Rally Bulgaria's candidate event in July 2009 ended in an accident which killed Italian co-driver Flavio Guglielmini and seriously injured Swiss driver Brian Lavio. Bulgaria was the only new candidate for the 2010 World Rally Championship season, although Rally Argentina had made a reserve application just in case Bulgarian rally failed.

The latest HQ of the rally is town of Samokov (2013-2015) and the route of the event contains special stages in Bulgaria's Sofia Province and Pazardzhik Province. The route, including some of the special stages, passes through the famous Borovets ski resort which was HQ from 2002 to 2012, meaning that it has also hosted the 2010 World Rally Championship season event.

Through the years Bulgarians have always been interested in the motorsport in one way or another. For the first Bulgarian Motorsport event is considered the 1914 race held around the capital Sofia and the winner there was Bulgarian Dimitar Pehlivanov. Many years of various motorsport events followed after this first try and every time the races grew bigger and more complicated than the previous ones.

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Wikipedia