Reigning ERC Ladies’ Trophy champion Ekaterina Stratieva will not be entering this weekend’s FIA European Rally Championship season-opener – Rally di Roma Capitale – due to personal reasons.
2019 saw Stratieva help the Saintéloc Racing Team to win the ERC Teams’ title after she clinched her title. Going into the season, she hadn’t competed for almost a year before deciding on a late entry for the Barum Czech Rally Zlín where she finished second in her class.
After a successful start, Stratieva then secured some financial support to enter the Cyprus Rally where she took the class win and then competed on Rally Hungary where her main rival Nabila Tejpar crashed, giving the Bulgarian driver the title.
“I am ready to start this season and we will compete for Saintéloc and I will rely entirely on them for service assistance, I am really sorry that we will be not able to start in Rome but I am looking forward and preparing for Latvia.” commented Stratieva about her decision to not take part in this weekend.
Although she isn’t back to defend her title at the 2020 season-opener, she plans to enter Rally Liepāja in Latvia next month despite having not competed there since 2014 when it was hosted as a winter rally.
