Bulgarian rally team seeks world stage

By Ben Richardson
BBC News, business reporter, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Bulgartabac's cars, drivers and mechanics aim for the podium. In pictures

In a garage on the outskirts of Plovdiv, a Welshman and a Bulgarian are working on a plan for global domination.

Carl Williamson and Georgi Geradzhiev Junior are the men in the front seats of the Bulgartabac rally team that they are hoping to steer to victory in national and international races.

Rally driving has had a long and chequered history in Bulgaria.

It enjoyed its best times when state-owned companies funded their own teams and organised races between the top drivers in the eastern bloc and Soviet Union.

The sport went through a difficult period after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but is gaining traction again, helped by Bulgaria's improving economy and optimism about its membership of the European Union.

"At its peak there were rally, circuit, hill-climb and rally-cross races. It was very attractive," says Georgi Jr, whose father is a former national champion and founder of the Bulgartabac team.

My father didn't want me to be a rally driver because he saw how difficult it was to make money Georgi Geradzhiev Jr

Drive on Bulgaria's roads and it is not long before you notice that many drivers have a love of speed that verges on the heroic, considering the often narrow and rutted nature of the tarmac.

According to Mr Williamson, who left Swansea to experience a new challenge and is now Bulgartabac's co-driver, the tricky conditions are one of the reasons Bulgarians are so fond of rallying.

"The roads between villages and towns here are very testing," he explains. "So when people see a competition, they think 'I can do that, no one can beat me on my local roads'."

"Bulgarians are a lot like Italians," Mr Williamson says. "They love food and they have a passion for motor sport."

'Pure love'

This enthusiasm is evident at Bulgartabac's garage, which is at the back of the Yuri Gagarin cigarette-paper factory and a long way from the surgical cleanliness and obvious wealth of a Formula One team.

Young mechanics scrub down an old Lada for repainting, while another car is up on a ramp ready for tuning. Team buses line two of the walls, flanking race cars that look frustrated to be hemmed in.

Bulgartabac's history is part of what keeps the team going today

It is off-season but the air crackles with excitement. The biggest smile of the day comes when Georgi Jr fires up a retired racing Lada and the exhaust burbles into noisy life.

"In the UK there is backstabbing and infighting and that can be seen in the spectators," shouts Mr Williamson.

"Here there is still a pure love for the sport."

Manufacturers are keen to tap into this desire and companies like Skoda and Suzuki are focusing on rallying as a way of connecting with consumers.

"We have seen an upsurge of interest in Eastern Europe," said Marc De Jong, director of commercial development for the Word Rally Championship's (WRC) support championship.

"Rallying is very relevant to the region."

Bulgartabac's old race Lada is kept running and used by the mechanics

In response to the sport's increasing popularity, the WRC has provisionally agreed to hold a championship race in Poland in 2008.

Mr De Jong explains that owning a car is still a new experience for many East European consumers, and rallying offers them the chance of driving the same course as professionals in similar cars.

At the same time, an increasing number of engineering companies in the region are offering racing and rallying services, helped by a skilled but cheaper workforce, Mr de Jong says.

Fine tuning

Many of the Bulgartabac team's mechanical skills have come from necessary parsimony, but there is also the communist-era pride to keep machines running that saw generations of men devotedly tinkering in their spare time.

During the tough years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Bulgartabac team looked to make ends meet by running a servicing centre for ordinary motorists.

Today, they are self-sufficient but they still have to make the money last, renting cars from other teams and sometimes not competing in races at the end of the season so that they will not empty the team's coffers for the next year.

It's a heartbreaking sport. No amount of talent will enable you to do it all. In the end it is down to money Carl Williamson

Bulgartabac is trying to compete on an annual budget of about 30,000 euros (£20,200), or about a tenth of the amount of cash available to better financed rivals.

The race cars used by the team are Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7s, which Mr Williamson admits are coming to the end of their competitive lives and are far less powerful than those used by many of their rivals.

"What they have done with these cars is remarkable," he says. "It is a testament to the skills of the mechanics that they have kept them running and even got us some podiums."

As well as having to find money for the race cars, there are the competition costs of a spare gear box, vehicle parts, tyres, fuel, mechanics, and insurance

"You hope you don't crash or cause any problems," Georgi Jr says.

"My father didn't want me to be a rally driver because he saw how difficult it was to make money," he explains, admitting that he had to finish his schooling and military conscription before getting the chance to sit behind the wheel of a rally car.

Family sport

This dedication has helped bring in the results, and Georgi Jr won the Bulgarian championship in his second year of competition in 2000.

He later competed in the WRC's production car championship in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, he finished fifth in the FIA European Rally Cup for Drivers - East.

Bulgartabac wants Bulgarian rallying to get the respect it deserves

However, the team's championships have been curtailed by money problems in 2005 and 2006.

"It is a heartbreaking sport for that reason," says Mr Williamson. "No amount of talent will enable you to do it all. In the end it is down to money."

Bulgartabac is constantly having to rejig its business, especially now that the EU's anti-smoking regulations will mean an end to their tobacco sponsorship money.

They have big plans for the future, however, and want to develop a national racing centre and rally circuit near Plovdiv that will offer combined asphalt and gravel track, and help secure their financial security and the continuing success of rallying.

"Motor sport was a community in Bulgaria, run by families and friends," explains Georgi Jr.

"My father wants to leave something for Bulgaria and its drivers so that they can make their mark on the world level."