Plamen Kralev

Plamen Simeonov Kralev[1] (Bulgarian: Пламен Симеонов Кралев, born 22 February 1973 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian racing driver and businessman. He is the only Bulgarian driver who has participated in FIA Formula 2 Championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans, Le Mans series, ADAC GT Masters, International GT Open, FIA European Touring Car Cup, Italian Touring Car Championship and Ferrari Challenge. Kralev also has participated in the FIA GT3 European Championship, and in the GP2 Asia Series. Kralev wraps up his active racing career in 2018 in the Italian Touring Car Championship with a podium finish at Misano. Plamen Kralev remains the only Bulgarian racing driver to have ever participated in international circuit championships organized by FIA.

Plamen Kralev
Nationality	Bulgarian
Born	(1973-02-22) 22 February 1973 Sofia, Bulgaria
Previous series
2007-08 2008 2008-09 2009 2009–10 2010–12 2014, 17 2017-18	Ferrari Challenge FIA GT3 European Championship ADAC GT Masters International GT Open 24 Hours of Le Mans Le Mans Series GP2 Asia Series FIA Formula Two Championship FIA ETCC Italian Touring Car Championship

Biography

In 1999 Kralev graduated from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy.

Racing Career

2003

Plamen Kralev debuted his racing career in 2003 in the Bulgarian Road Championship and became champion of class X3 in the same year. Simultaneously he also won the National Off-Road Championship in Bulgaria.

2007

Kralev began his international career in 2007 in the European Ferrari Challenge series, driving for Team Rosokorso. In his first season Kralev recorded two wins: Hockenheimring and Mugello. At the end of the season he was ranked 11th place with 112 points.

2008

In 2008, Kralev moved to Kessel Racing. He participated both in the Ferrari Challenge as well as in the FIA GT3 European Championship. Kralev was initially partnered with Dimitar Iliev and was later teamed with Niki Cadei. Kralev and Kessel Racing also participated in the German ADAC GT Masters series with their GT3 car. During 2008 Kralev recorded two wins in the Ferrari Challenge and was ranked fifth at the end of the season. Kralev ran as high as third on the Ferrari Challenge World Cup event near the end of the season but fell back due of tire problems. Kralev also participated in the final round of the International GT Open in Barcelona with Matteo Cressoni. The two earned tenth and fourth-place finishes in the two races. The success he achieved during these two years led him to pursue a professional racing career. On 8 September 2008 Kralev signed a cooperation agreement with the Bulgaria State Tourism Agency to serve as the country's ambassador to the world of motorsport. Kralev's GT3 Ferrari bears the Bulgarian rose as a tourism promotion.[2]

2009

In 2009 Kralev became the first Bulgarian to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race driving the Endurance Asia Team Porsche, but due to a gear box failure, had to stop at the 18th hour with 186 laps completed. Plamen Kralev remains the only Bulgarian driver to have participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans series to date. Later that year, he joined the GP2 Asia Series in the 2009–10 season with the Trident Racing team.[3] Despite the lack of any experience in Formula racing, Kralev managed to meet the eligibility criteria and finished a full season.

2010-12

Next, Kralev moved to the FIA Formula Two Championship for the 2010 season,[4] and continued in the series in 2011[5] and 2012. He remains the first Bulgarian driver to have ever competed in the Formula Two Championship.

At the end of the 2012 season, the Formula Two Championship had been disbanded and Kralev ended this stage of his racing career with it.

2014

Kralev partially competed in the European Touring Car Cup for Engstler Motorsport with BMW 320si, for 3 events and was ranked 10th place with 14 points.

2017

Plamen Kralev started racing in the FIA European Touring Car Cup (ETCC) and the TCR Italy Touring Car Championship (ITCC) for this 2017 seasons for Kraf Racing with AUDI RS3 LMS. Kraf Racing is a new bulgarian team, and despite the lack of experience still manage to get 6 podiums - 2 in ETCC and 4 in TCR.

2018

Kralev continues racing only in the TCR Italy Touring Car Championship (ITCC) for the 2018 season because the FIA European Touring Car Cup (ETCC) had folded at the end of the 2017 season. Kralev missed the second racing weekend (Paul Ricard) of this season because his car was damaged from the first race in Imola and wasn't ready in time. He returned for the third racing weekend at Misano where there were a record number of 31 cars racing and yet Kralev still managed to get in 3rd place on the first race but due to a collision he became 9th in the second race.

Racing Record

Career Summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2007	Ferrari Challenge	Team Rosokorso	15	2	2	?	2	112	11th
2008	FIA GT3 European Championship	Kessel Racing	7/12	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	ADAC GT Masters		2/14	0	0	1	1	10	22nd
	Ferrari Challenge Italy		8	3	4	?	5	175	5th
	International GT Open GTA class	Racing Team EdilCris	2	0	0	0	0	4	26th
2009	International GT Open	Vittoria Competizioni	6	0	0	0	0	7	43rd
	International GT Open Super GT class		6	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class	Endurance Asia Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	11th
	Le Mans Series GT2 class	JMB Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	Trident Racing	8	0	0	0	0	0	33rd
2010	FIA Formula Two Championship	MotorSport Vision	18/18	0	0	0	0	1	20st
2011	FIA Formula Two Championship		16/16	0	0	0	0	1	23rd
2012	FIA Formula Two Championship		16/16	0	0	0	0	4	17th
2014	European Touring Car Championship	Engstler Motorsport	6/10	0	0	0	0	14	10th
2017	European Touring Car Championship	Kraf Racing	9/10	0	0	1	2	25	7th
	Italy Touring Car Championship		10/14	0	0	0	4	63	5th
2018	Italy Touring Car Championship		4/14	0	0	0	1	14	19th

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2009	Endurance Asia Team Perspective Racing	Darryl O'Young Philippe Hesnault	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	GT2	186	NC	NC

Complete GP2 Series results

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2009–10	Trident Racing	ABU1 FEA Ret	ABU1 SPR Ret	ABU2 FEA 16	ABU2 SPR 20	BHR1 FEA 22	BHR1 SPR 16	BHR2 FEA Ret	BHR2 SPR 18	33rd	0

Complete FIA Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2010	SIL 1 15	SIL 2 17	MAR 1 12	MAR 2 12	MNZ 1 10	MNZ 2 11	ZOL 1 Ret	ZOL 2 14	ALG 1 Ret	ALG 2 Ret	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 15	BRN 1 15	BRN 2 17	OSC 1 15	OSC 2 14	VAL 1 17	VAL 2 17	20th	1
2011	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 17	MAG 1 Ret	MAG 2 18	SPA 1 Ret	SPA 2 18	NÜR 1 17	NÜR 2 17	BRH 1 12	BRH 2 13	SPL 1 10	SPL 2 15	MNZ 1 12	MNZ 2 13	CAT 1 16	CAT 2 17			23rd	1
2012	SIL 1 15	SIL 2 15	ALG 1 15	ALG 2 13	NÜR 1 11	NÜR 2 DNS	SPA 1 13	SPA 2 17	BRH 1 11	BRH 2 Ret	LEC 1 12	LEC 2 9	HUN 1 9	HUN 2 13	MNZ 1 13	MNZ 2 13			17th	4

References

1. "Plamen Simeonov Kralev". gp2series.com. GP2 Series. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
2. "Plamen Kralev Advertising Face in Bulgaria" (in Bulgarian). Don Balon. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
3. "Plamen Kralev secures GP2 Asia drive". Plamen Kralev. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
4. "Formula Two welcomes Plamen Kralev for 2010". FIA Formula Two Championship. MotorSport Vision. 19 March 2010. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
5. "Plamen Kralev confirms F2 return". FIA Formula Two Championship. MotorSport Vision. 10 March 2011. Archived from the original on 25 March 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2011.

External links

• Plamen Kralev career summary at DriverDB.com