Round three of the 2020 World Rally Championship gets underway this Thursday, 12 March. Rally México has been one of the most difficult rallies in the WRC calendar for sixteen years. Kajetan Kajetanowicz makes his debut in this event, after testing his new rally car in North America, last Monday. The Polish driver will compete in a Skoda Fabia R5 evo, with Maciej Szczepaniak in co-driver’s seat.
The Lotos Rally Team driver starts his 2020 campaign, consisting of seven rounds. This is the maximum amount of rallies which count towards overall championship tally in the WRC-3 category (formerly known as the WRC-2). This is the most popular series of the whole championship, which promises – as usual – a fierce battle for victory, and Kajetanowicz is very much looking forward to it. Six top results from seven rallies count towards the final championship classification.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak will battle agains, among others, Oliver Solberg from Norway (VW Polo GTI R5), Paulo Nobre from Brazil (Skoda Fabia R5), Marco Bulacia Wilkinson from Bolivia (Citroen C3 R5), Alberto Heller from Chile (Ford Fiesta R5 MkII) and – of course – local contingent of Mexican drivers, the most experienced competitors in this event: Ricardo Triviño (15 outings on home soil) and Benito Guerra (13 outings and victory last year) – both Skoda Fabia R5.
– We start our campaign with Rally México, we are already in South America. For sure it will be a great challenge for the whole LOTOS Rally Team. Despite four Polish Rally Championship titles and three in the European Championship, we don’t know what to expect here. The stages are very complicated and run at high altitude. Thin air will make it difficult both for us and for the cars. I am happy to be here. We begin the season with positive attitude. I hope that our fans will be with us all the time, just like in previous years. We are ready and motivated to fight. We will try to maximise the potential of our new car which has performed very well so far –
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, triple European Rally Champion.
The competition begins on Thursday (12 March 2020) with an extremely colourful official starting ceremony in Guanajuato. Afterwards the crews will complete two runs of the city stage (1.12 kms, starts at 03:08 and 03:31 CET). The longest leg is scheduled on Friday, with ten special stages and over 135 competitive kilometres. First loop consists of four tests: El Chocolate 1 (31.45 kms, starts at 16:08 CET), Ortega 1 (17.24 kms, at 17:16 CET), Las Minas 1 (13.69 kms, at 18:14 CET) and Parque Bicentenario (2.71 kms, at 19:12 CET). The afternoon loop begins with another runs of El Chocolate (at 22:35 CET), Ortega (at 23:43 CET) and Las Minas (00:41 CET). It ends with a couple of short superspecials: Autódromo 1 and 2 (2.33 kms, at 02:21 and 02:26 CET) and Street Stage León (0,73 kms, at 03:14 CET).
On Sunday there are nine special stages, with combined length just one kilometre shy of Friday’s total. The Guanajuatito 1 test (24.96 kms) starts at 15:58 CET and it will be followed by Alfaro 1 (16.99 kms, at 17:01 CET) and Derramadero 1 (21.78 kms, at 18:08). After a visit in the service park the crews will tackle the same stages at 21:56, 22:59 and 00:08 CET. This day also ends with some short stages: Autódromo 3 and 4 (2.33 kms, at 01:38 and 01:43 CET) and Rock & Rally León (1.62 kms, at 02:26).
The final leg takes place on Sunday, 15 March. It consists of three stages: Otates (the longest test of the whole rally – 33.61 kms, at 15:38 CET), San Diego (12.76 kms, at 16:56 CET) and El Brinco Power Stage (9.64 kms, at 18:18 CET). The rally finishes at around 19:00 CET.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by strategic partner of the LOTOS Rally Team – Grupa LOTOS – as well as Delphi Technologies, Driving Experience and Pirelli.
