Tragedy caused the world championship candidate Rally Bulgaria to be stopped after an accident cost the life of Italian codriver Flavio Guglielmini on the first stage of the second day of the event. He had been competing with the Swiss driver Brian Lavio when their Peugeot 207 S2000 left the road on a fast left hand bend, hit one tree, spun round and impacted a second tree on the codriver’s side. Lavio was extricated from the wreckage and taken to hospital where his condition was stated to be stable. Guglielmini is reported to have died on the scene. They were lying eleventh overall at the time. The rally itself was being led by Giandomenico Basso, ironically the driver with whom Guglielmini made his mark in international rallying name. Apart from a season in the inaugural FIA Super 1600 Cup series most of Guglielmini’s subsequent career was spent in Italy where he competed with many top national drivers including Alex Fiorio and Andrea Aghini.

The 2009 Rally Bulgaria counted for the FIA’s European championship and was run in sweltering heat in the Rila mountains southeast of Sofia. Naturally smooth low-grip asphalt roads were made even more challenging for drivers by a lot of sand lying on the surfaces. 37 drivers started the event. The first day consisted of three mountainous stages done twice with a central service park in the valley below the rally headquarters town in the ski resort centre of Borovets. Fiat driver Basso however was in his element, taking the lead straight away and winning every stage. He pulled away until he was more than a minute in the lead. Corrado Fontana initially gave chase in his Peugeot with Dimitar Iliev’s Mitsubishi lying third despite understeering. Popov had brake problems on the first stage. After the third stage Basso led Bulgarian driver Krum Donchev in front of Fontana and Michal Solowow. Conditions were exhausting for both drivers and cars in the midday heat, several Peugeot drivers reported engine overheating. In the afternoon loop of stages Donchev had a broken shock absorber bearing but retained his place, Betti passed Iliev into fourth place but Betti dropped back to seventh with gearbox trouble and later retired at service. Popov punctured but finished the day in sixth place behind Iliev.

In the two wheel drive category the Czech driver Antonin Tsulak immediately took the lead in his Citroen S1600 but was passed by Todor Slavov’s Renault Clio R3, but Slavov slowed with overheating problems and Tsulak went ahead again.

The rally restarted early on the Sunday morning. Most of the second day stages were repeats of the first day stages but run in the opposite direction and Basso stormed further ahead but then the accident happened. The route was blocked behind the first few cars by the crash. When the severity of the incident was apparent, the rally was immediately stopped. The accident happened where GPS contact was not possible, but the organisers were alerted when the marshals at the following mid-stage control points reported that the Lavio’s car had not passed them.

3mmm
photo 1: Basso - Fiat
photo 2: Lavio - Guglielmini
photo 3: Mitsubishi - Iliev

Final classification
1 Basso/Dotta        Fiat Grande Punto S2000   1h32m16.7s
2 Donchev/Yordanov   Peugeot 207 Super 2000    1h33m45.1s
3 Fontana/Cassina    Peugeot 207 Super 2000    1h34m17.1s
4 Iliev/Yanakiev     Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX  1h34m48.8s
5 Solowow/Baran      Peugeot 207 Super 2000    1h34m49.5s
6 J + N Popov        Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX  1h35m15.2s

ERC classification : Basso 43p, Solowow 43p, Donchev 43p, Fontana 37p, Betti 31p, Travaglia 13p, Di Benedetto 8p, Iliev 7p, etc