Sliven fans saw a dramatic start to the 11th round of the Intercontinental rally challenge (IRC) with George Lazarov/Dinko Georgiev (Citroen Saxo) sent to hospital in the first minutes.

The crew started fifth on the road and hit a tree.

The organizers had an instant reaction and the driver was sent to hospital for more checks. His status was ok after the initial shock.

After the restart, that was given some 30 minutes after the accident, most of the drivers did some small mistakes that cost them valuable time.

The favorites for the overall win Krum Donchev/Petar Yordanov (Peugeot 207 S2000), Petar Gyoshev/Dimitar Spasov (Peugeot 207 S2000) and Dimitar Iliev/Yanai Yanaiev (Skoda Fabia S2000) all did mistakes but still managed to complete the stage.

Donchev missed the entry for the third turn and lost about 20 seconds before he returned to the road. He finished 18th with 16 seconds behind the leader.

Gyoshev lost the control of the car damaged the front of his car. He set the 8th fastest time, 5,9 sec behind the first placed driver.

Iliev, like Donchev, missed the entry to the third turn but managed to get back a lot more quickly and registered the 6th fastest time.

After all the drama to the top Bulgarian drivers, it was Yagiz Avci/Bahadir Gucenmez (Ford Fiesta S2000) who set the fastest time with 2:00.5 min.

He did a brilliant job in front of the Hadji Dimitar stadium and was applauded by thousands of fans.

Just 1 tenth of a second behind, in a close second came Ignat Isaev/Milen Iliev (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9).

Third fastest was Romanian Marco Tempestini/Dorin Pulpea (Subaru Impreza R4) half a second behind the leader.