ROMANIAN AUTOMOBILE SPORT FEDERATION
Dunlop National Rallies Championship 2008

Bucharest, February 2008 – In the last federal council, the Romanian Automobile Sport Federation decided to change the name of the national rally competition from the “Dunlop Romanian Rally Championship” into the “Dunlop National Rallies Championship”.

Dan Gârtofan, Bogdan Marişca and Marco Tempestini, the three great favorites to the absolute National Champion title of the internal rally championship of Romania, are waited at the start of the Dunlop National Rallies Championship. In 2007 those pilots, together with their co-pilots and other rally teams, performed great evolutions in the Dunlop Romanian Rally Championship, during 10 alive, stimulating and surprising rally sessions.

„Starting with this year, the Romanian Rally Championship becomes the National Rallies Championship, which will remain this year too under the aegis of the traditional partner of the Federation, Goodyear Dunlop Tires Romania. This change reflects both the national relevance of the competition and its major impact inside the automobile sport in Romania, and the Romanian motorsport’s reality. A rally national championship must stay, and from now on it will certainly stay, under the auspices of the Romanian Automobile Sport Federation, the only institution legitimated to organize a championship of a national importance”, said Ştefan Vasile, President of the Romanian Automobile Sport Federation. „Dunlop National Rallies Championship 2008 is the recognition of the Romanian automobile sport notable feat at its true value, and it is also the competition in which those who will take the start will find themselves in the shoes of national and, we hope soon, international sportsmen”, he added.

After only three years of experience, the rally championship organized by the Romanian Automobile Sport Federation became the single competition where the Romanian automobile sportsmen take the start in order to fight for the absolute National Champion title. „As long as the championship organized by the Romanian Federation is the one which decides the National Rally Champion, we don’t see way it has to take other names than the National Championship”, underlined the Federation’s general secretary, Ovidiu Mazilu.

The change of the competition’s name is not the only change reserved by the Romanian Federation for the Dunlop National Rallies Championship. In the federal council it was also decided the opening of the internal championship for international pilots, members of European Union. This decision, coming a year late, is based especially on the new Romania’s status of being EU member with full rights.

Dunlop National Rallies Championship 2008 will have 8 rally sessions, 4 on asphalt and 4 on macadam, as it follows:

Session Period            Place       a/m  Organizer
1       07-08th March     Braşov       a   AUTO BLIC Braşov
2       11-12th April     Reşiţa       a   UCM Reşiţa
3       09-10th May       Hunedoara    a   HYUNDAI RALLY TEAM ROMÂNIA Hunedoara
4       21-22nd June      Cluj         a   SAVU RACING Cluj-Napoca
5       18-19th July      Sibiu        m   SCORPION RALLY TEAM Sibiu
6       22-23rd August    Ţara Bârsei  m   AUTO BLIC Braşov
7       19-20th September Avram Iancu  m   DANNY UNGUR RACING Cluj-Napoca
8       17-18th October   Iaşi         m   RALLY MOTORSPORT Iaşi

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