The second day of Rally Bulgaria started early Saturday, first car getting on tarmac at around 7:30. Unfortunately, we were a bit late and didn’t get to see the first runners. The good part though was that, at one point, we intersected with Kimi Raikkonen on the way to the 5th stage – Sestrimo. Being overtaken by a rally car and Formula 1 champion gives you goose bumps, especially when he starts warming up his tires in front of you. We even got to see Kimi pretty close, since we stopped next to the starting point. To be honest, if I didn’t know Kimi I wouldn’t say he’s a Formula 1 champion – he looked like a boy happy to play with his car that day.
After seeing half of the stage 5 in Sestrimo, we decided to catch stage 7 as well – Lybnitsa. After struggling to get there – closed road, no parking, pretty much sucky organization – the FIA safety delegate decided to cancel the stage on safety grounds because of large indisciplined spectators. I am not going to judge those people yelling “We’re in Bulgaria”, read it like in “We can do whatever we want”, but they should know that pushing a WRC stage to be cancelled is mainly stupid, if not retarded. Nevertheless, this way we got to see the cars driving at a lower pace and managed to take pretty close photos by almost staying in the middle of the road.
Being disappointed by the cancellation, we headed back to Sestrimo where, due to the 27 minute delay, we managed to catch the whole party from a better spot – straight line followed by a narrow curve with plenty of space for spectators. The lightning speed of the cars, the burning smell of the brakes, and the outrageous sound that hits you in the chest make your heart beat faster dreaming of becoming a small Loeb.
A couple of tips for future rallies:
Spectator tickets were not mandatory. You can easily get to some good spots without having to buy tickets. We used our tickets for 1 stage only, even though we got to see 3.
Parking tickets were useless. They sell an unlimited number of parking tickets, the parking space being limited and very small. Unless you go 2-3 hours before the start, you don’t get inside the parking. We found places in the village or on the side of the road.
Be careful where you stay. A good place for you might not look so good in the eyes of the marshals and they might move you somewhere else. Ask some official before you decide to take a spot.
Chip and Dan Heath’s book, Switch – How To Change Things When Change Is Hard, is all about understanding the mechanics of change. The book is structured on 3 main parts (Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, Shape the Path) which explain the brain’s two independent systems that work at all times: the emotional and rational parts.
The emotional side is that part that makes us be instinctive and feel pain and pleasure. On the other hand, the rational side represents the conscious system and it’s the part that deliberates and analyzes and looks into the future. From this point, the authors take the analogy used by psychologist Jonathan Haidt (University of Viriginia) in his book – The Happiness Hypothesis. Our emotional side is represented by an Elephant and our rational side is its Rider.
Direct the Rider: What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. So provide crystal-clear direction.
Motivate the Elephant: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The Rider can’t get his way by force for very long. So it’s critical that you engage people’s emotional side – get their Elephants on the path and cooperative.
Shape the Path: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. We call the situation (including the surrounding environment) the Path. When you shape the Path, you make change more likely, no matter what’s happening with the Rider and Elephant.
As Chris Brogan likes to say The book is an absolute perfect prescription on how to understand change! [...] It’s a must. I can’t imagine not having this book and not trying out this sort of formula that it’s in there, and really not burning that formula into how you work with change, how you work with marketing, and how you get a lot of stuff done…
Having these said, while reading the book I extracted a couple of sentences that I found interesting and useful even out of context:
People eat more when you give them a bigger container.
Self-control is an exhaustible resource. (refers to the “supervised” like behavior)
Change is hard because people wear themselves out.
Decision paralysis: More options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan.
With 5 days left till the start, the 41st Rally of Bulgaria is more than just a regular stage in the internal championship due to the fact that it has been included in the World Rally Championship. This can only mean world wide renown drivers, super powerful and fast world rally cars, beautiful Bulgarian scenery, and a great show for spectators.
The 41st Rally of Bulgaria will take place in the picturesque resort Borovets (it got a great mountain bike park), located in the Rila Mountain, in southern Bulgaria. The total length of the competition is 1068 km, the drivers having to race through 14 Special Stages – 353 km – on asphalt. The shakedown will take place on the 7th of July, the ceremonial start will be given in the evening of the following day, and the first day of competition will be Friday, July 9.
The rally will entertain the spectators for 3 days (9-10-11 July) and tickets are available online and in stores like Office 1 Superstore, Internity, and Piccadily. I already got my pass and I will be there on the 10th trying to spot Sebastian Loeb and former Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen. You can find more information about the competition on Rally Bulgaria’s official site. Hope to see you there!
Update: Sebastian Loeb and Dani Sordo put on a show today in Sofia, part of an event organized by Citroen. You can watch a couple of stunts they performed in the following video:
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Chip and Dan Heath’s book, Switch – How To Change Things When Change Is Hard, is all about understanding the mechanics of change. The book is structured on 3 main parts (Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, Shape the Path) which explain the brain’s two independent systems that work at all times: the emotional and rational parts.
