The international motorsport rally faced brand new territory for its 10th edition.
Balkan Offroad Rallye was back on the international motorsport scene after two years’ pause, caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The biggest off-road challenge on the Balkan peninsula returned, with a celebration of its 10th anniversary edition. And the rally faced brand new terrains in a new host country – after 9 years in Bulgaria, this time the rally took place in Romania, in the beautiful and mountainous region of Transylvania for a great “Dracula” edition. Actually, this is a return to the origins, as the first edition of the race in 2011 was also held in this picturesque country.
Romania has very good traditions in the field of the motorsports and especially in the off-road. The country offers fantastic terrains with big forests, open mountains, magnificent roads, as well as incredible sections for the extreme competitions. RBI Sport was working with the local automobile and motorcycle federations, which gives a huge support for the event. Compared to the Rallye Breslau in Poland, the competitors at the Balkan Offroad had very different, three-dimensional and wild terrains, which offered a really demanding challenge.
The anniversary edition of Balkan Offroad Rallye offered 5 full rally days between 25th and 30th September, plus one additional day in the beginning for the ceremonial start and the qualifying stage. The technical inspection and the show start took place in the beautiful city of Sighisoara, which is World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO and the big final was in the historical city of Alba Iulia. The cities will host respectively the two camps of this year competition.
Speaking about the start, the organizer Alex Kovatchev and his international orga team from RBI Sport, host more than 120 racing vehicles from all classes – bikes, quads, SSVs and cars. Traditionally, there were 3 categories – Cross Country (all vehicles), Extreme (cars limited and open) and Discovery (all classes).
The first one is not all about speed, but also focused to the skilled navigation in the dynamic terrains of Transylvania. The route for the Cross Country was about 1400 km, from which more than 1000 against the clock. The Extreme category had not so long, but really heavy and demanding itinerary, with hard sections to attack in the mountains, rivers, swamps, etc. Finally, the Discovery category meet some attractive sections from the rally, but without the timing pressure.
As usual, there were competitors from different European countries – France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Switzerland and the host country Romania. This year there are expected participants even from the USA, Australia and South Africa. Among the teams are some of the winners and veterans form the very first editions of Balkan Offroad Rallye. This was an ultimate off-road adventure!
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