Cristiana Oprea and Diana Hațegan return on the stages of Rally Sliven, Bulgaria | 27-30 June 2019

Cristiana Oprea and Diana Hațegan return on the stages of Rally Sliven, Bulgaria

For the second year in a row, Romanian female rally crew Cristiana Oprea/Diana Hațegan will compete in Rally Sliven, Bulgaria, on 28-30 June. The event is very dear to them, as this is where in 2018 they opened a new chapter of Romanian motorsport, by becoming the first Romanian female crew to compete in a foreign rally in the last 50 years.

The rally takes place this weekend and has prepared 165km of tarmac special stages, which our girls will conquer with the same Dacia Sandero 0.9 TCe as last year, a Cupa DACIA specification race car with which she completed 2 full seasons in the Romanian National Rally Championship.

Saturday, the first day, will be an intense one: the crews have to complete 100km of special stages configured in 2 legs, each of 3 stages: SS Ablanovo (14.59km) – SS Tchukata (9.38km) – SS Rakovo (24.75km). The evening will end with the superspecial stage in Sliven city center. Suday, in the second race day, the organizers have prepared 3 special stages in one section, SS8 Trapoklovo (11.84km) – SS9 Itchera (9.28km) – SS10 Bulgarka (10.18km), which will be followed by service and a final endurance test – SS11 Sinite Kamani of 33.50km

Rally driver Cristiana Oprea declares herself very enthusiastic to return to the wheel of her race car, almost 2 months after she stepped on the overall podium of DACIA Cup at Argeș Rally 2019: “We can’t wait to race again with our neighbours – last year I was very impressed about absolutely everything, from the organization of the rally and the configuration of the stages, to the great number of fans and the warm welcome we received! From a competitional point of view, for us this is a very intense period, Rally Sliven being only the beginning of a tarmac rally series which will culminate with our participation at FIA ERC Rally di Roma Capitale. But this weekend we will focus on getting the best out of the Sandero, which I know and control a lot better than last year so I hope our pace will be better.”

“I am happy to be here for the second time, where we plan to continue with the same good rhythm we had at the beginning of our season. We are delighted by the stage configuration, especially the long one with 33km, and we are trying to gain as much experience as possible for our next challenges.” said codriver Diana Hațegan.

The Romanian crew #28 C.Oprea/D. Hațegan, Rally Sliven will be a great practice before their Rally Roma project at the middle of July – Cristiana and Diana will become the first Romanian female rally crew to ever compete in a FIA ERC event. Their partners for this endeavour are MichelinHoliday ClubUnoCardio Sports through Health ShopȘcoala de Șoferi TEO and technical  partners Walero and DJI România.

Publication date: 28 June 2019