This Thursday, August 22nd, the 2019 Rallye Deutschland will start. This is the tenth round of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The Rallye Deutschland takes place on asphalt and concrete surfaces as well as in vineyards and military training grounds. Kajetan Kajetanowicz continues the competition in the WRC2 category, in which he has already finished the rallies twice this year, taking the podium. The Ustroń citizen, piloted by Maciej Szczepaniak, has already finished testing his rally car.
For the LOTOS Rally Team duo it will be the second joint start in German competitions. This year’s stake includes nearly sixty entered crews, more than half of whom will compete in the sister class R5! Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak will be the only representatives of our country. For the fight in technically difficult special sections they will drive a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, which they raced in the first two of this year’s rallies.
– We’ve had two days of long and comprehensive testing of the car. I hope that the feelings during the rally will be similar to those from the tests, which were really good. Now we are fully focused on the competition itself. There are some changes compared to last year’s edition. The organizers have prepared new episodes. It had always been a difficult rally, with days of competition stretched out. On Saturday alone we will cover a total of almost 160 kilometres, including two runs on the longest, characteristic and exceptional Panzerplatte section, measuring over 41 kilometres! Excited and motivated as usual, we look forward to the start. I know that many Polish fans will be there with us – and this is very important for me
– comments Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the LOTOS Rally Team driver.
The special sections of the 37th ADAC Rallye Deutschland are more than 344 kilometres long in total. On Thursday (August 22nd) at 10:00 a.m. the shakedown (St. Wendeler Land, 5.20 km) will start, followed by the first test of the rally at 7:08 p.m. – SSS St. Wendeler Land (5.20 km). On Friday three special sections are planned, in double loops, separated by a service: Stein und Wein (19.44 km, 10:14 a.m. and 3:42 p.m.), Mittelmosel (22.00 km, 11:08 a.m. and 4:36 p.m.) and Wadern-Weiskirchen (9.27 km, 12:43 p.m. and 6:11 p.m.). The total length of the section is 106.62 km.
Saturday will be the longest day of the rally, which will consist of eight special sections. The crews will compete until noon at the rehearsals in Freisen (14.78 km, 8:09 and 11:09 hours) and Römerstraße (12.28 km, 9:12 and 12:12 hours). After the service, the competitors will move on to the Baumholder training ground, where two trials have been marked out: Arena Panzerplatte (10.73 km, 3:08 p.m. and 6:53 p.m.) and Panzerplatte (41.17 km, 3:46 p.m. and 7:31 p.m.). The length of the stage is 157.92 km.
The final stage will be held on Sunday. Two attempts are planned to be made twice, without a service break: Grafschaft (28.06 km, 7:46 am and 10:10 am) and Dhrontal (11.69 km, 9:41 am and 12:18 pm – as Power Stage). The total length will be 79.50 km.
After three rallies this season, Kajetanowicz is in sixth place in the WRC2 season classification with 33 points. The leader is Mexican Benito Guerra (69 points and four rallies), followed by Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet (63 points, four rallies), Russian Nikolai Griazin (63 points, five rallies), Norwegian Ole Christian Veiby (50 points, five rallies) and Takamoto Katsuta (47 points, seven rallies). For the final classification the best six out of seven results are taken into account.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz’s starts are supported by: LOTOS Rally Team’s strategic partner Grupa LOTOS, as well as Delphi Technologies, Driving Experience, and Pirelli.
