Orlin Alexiev at Samokov trophy 2021.

The delay in delivery of the new car impeded  Orlin Alexiev  from starting the Samokov trophy race 2021, but he presented the awards to the winners.

Even though Orlin Aleksiev didn’t start the Samokov trophy race because of the delay in delivering his new vehicle, he had the chance to present the winners of the competition.

Alexiev is one of the most successful Bulgarian riders in the Dakar Rally. He plans to compete again in the race in 2023 with Todor Hristov as a co-driver. The team is preparing to take on the trail with a new kind of vehicle, the Can-Am Maverick X3 1000. The competition will be held in Saudi Arabia and Alexiev already began his preparation at the beginning of this year. Those who follow the race know that this will not be his first time participating in the Dakar Rally. He had competed in the race twice before.

Alexiev planned to participate in this year’s National Off-Road Championship in Samokov, but the delivery of his new machine, the Can-Am Maverick X3 1000, was delayed, so he wasn’t able to start the race. However, he was chosen to present awards to the winners of the race. Further, he shared with his fans and competitors his future plans.

The three rounds of the Bulgarian National Off-Road Championships took place in Samokov municipality from October 1 to 3. This race is an important part of the sporting event calendar of the Automobile Federation of Bulgaria and is held with the support of the Samokov municipality.

The competition began with a welcome speech from the mayor of the town of Samokov, Vladimir Georgiev. 53 vehicles representing Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, and Greece were prepared to tackle the routes. The local club “MotorSportSamokov” had planned over 500 kilometres of distances for the three days of racing. Participants had to complete various challenging routes, including steep climbs and descents, ravines, and riverbeds. More than 5,000 spectators attended the final races and presentation of the winners at the Rideau racetrack on a Sunday.

It was a challenging race and Bulgarian drivers performed very well despite fierce competition. Daniel Gospodinov and Ivan Penchev held off tough competition from Kazakhstan and Greece during the race in the heaviest prototypes. The fastest prototype was achieved by two young crew members from Plovdiv with perfect navigation and high average speeds, Angel Rusev and Alex Staykov. Parvan Parvanov and Lubo Dimitrov took the stage in the standard cars, and Tsvetan and KaloyanNaydenovi with Jeep Cherokee again led the ranking in the reinforced standard cars.

At this competition, for the first time, racetracking.org released an automatic satellite tracking system that processes results automatically. This is a development of the Varna-based company EasyTracking. Although the system was attacked by hackers on the last day, the race was successfully presented with only 15 minutes delay.

This year’s Bulgarian champions will be decided during the final round of the competition, which will be held from November 26 to 28 in the vicinity of Ruse.