I was very happy and excited this week. I still am. I finally have a plan for 2019 and this helped me change to a more positive mindset and start over with all the work and talks with potential motorsport partners. I was thinking about this chemistry of feeling and started doing a mental list with all the things that usually give me goosebumps: the idea of buying something I wanted for a long time, the enthusiasm of seeing someone again, the joy of success.
People around me enjoy city-breaks around the world, new bags or shoes, a newly signed deal or exuberant parties. Among these come all the small things, which give us another kind of goosebumps, as if the thrill of waiting wasn’t enough: a Netflix & chill weekend, a glass of wine in the evening, home, a lunch with grandparents or an afternoon with the dogs in the park.
I enjoy all of the above, but they don’t give me goosebumps anymore, nothing is “normal” as we generally accept it. This year, for the first time since I started rallying, I will get a new pair of racing boots as an Easter Gift. Maybe it sounds stupid, but for me this small things brings me a huge joy.
What gives me goosebumps is a rally. The certainty that I will be back behind the wheel of my race car is a certain, instant smile maker. Those days when I am at 100% concentration, when I don’t care about what I wear, my make-up or having perfect nails. The moments when I fight againts my own limits, on the rhythm of Diana’s pace notes I hear inside the helmet, those seconds in which I live and breath motorsport. #GetTheEdge
So, to get to the point, I’ve decided not to miss the opening rally of the season in the Romanian National Rally Championship and DACIA Cup: see you at Argeș Rally on 2-4 May, in Pitești, Curtea de Argeș and on the most beautiful road in the world – Transfăgărășan (near Vidraru dam)!
It is a decision I made together with my team manager (mom), my mentor George Grigorescu and Tudor. We’ll compete only with the money I make from my day job as a graphic & web designer, and it’s kind of a remedy for the frustrations I’ve accumulated in the last half a year. After this small step I will continue looking for partners who will support our endeavour in Dacia Cup and, implicitly, in the national rally championship.
But this is not all, we even have a great survival plan. With Michelin as main partner, Walero as technical partenrs and DJI responsible for all the wow images I post, I will compete in 3 Super Rally events in Romania: Târgu Mureș (14-15 June), Craiova (13-14 September) and Bucharest (25-26 October). These being on a Saturday, I hope I’ll meet as many of you guys and enjoy together our passion for motorsport. Also, together with the same partners I can already confirm me and Diana will again be present at the FIA ERT event Rally Sliven in Bulgaria (27-30 June), the event which brought us so many beautiful surprises in 2018.
The good news is we have our first partner (I will reveal everything at the right time) and almost half of the budge we need for our most ambitious plan yet: competing at a FIA ERC event – Rally di Roma Capitale!
Therefor I can optimistically (even slightly naive) say that we will find the remaining of the budget so that on 17-21 of July the Romanian female rally crew C.Oprea/D. Hațegan will start in Rally di Roma Capitale with a Peugeot 208 R2 prepared by the #Motorsport technical assistance team.
*Since 1953 when the FIA ERC first started no other Romanian lady rally driver has ever participated (hence no other 100% Romanian female rally crew). 2019 is the last year I will also score points as a junior driver and I promised myself I will change the gender statistics in Romanian rallying.
Small steps on my own, various plans or ambitious goals, 2019 has it all – as well as the potential to grow intro a truly valuable, unique project, together with the right partners.
See you on the rally stages!
