It might be quite surprising but the training routine of a rally driver is not limited just to racking up more kilometres on various special stages and turning the steering wheel left and right. Kajetan Kajetanowicz would not have won three European Rally Championship titles if he had worked on his driving technique only. You can meet him in a gym more often than on the stages!
In order to compete for victories you need a proper car and suitable „feeling” in the cockpit. But you cannot be successful at the top level if you do not care about every smallest detail. Spending the whole day with maximum concentration calls for a great physical fitness. It is not easy when you drive at high speed on narrows roads, with almost 60 degrees Celsius inside the car. The success consists of different nuances and split-second decisions which in turn, at high strain levels, require adequate preparation. This is why Kajetanowicz works with his personal trainer on a daily basis.
– G-forces and temperatures inside our car are sometimes enormous. On top of that the heart rate is quite high. Let me tell you that I lose between 4.500 and 6.000 calories per one rally day. I would not be able to keep my focus at required level all the time without sufficient preparations. This is why my work with personal coach is so important, in addition to normal testing sessions in the car – says the LOTOS Rally Team driver.
Kajetanowicz relishes new challenges and he hates boring training sessions – so each one is different. Exercises with resistance bands or ladders are quite ordinary but tennis balls and trickboard do not appear in the gym very often. However, the most interesting activity involves driving simulation – blindfolded, with his co-driver’s voice in the background. Each exercise is well-considered and aimed at improving general physical fitness and efficiency – so important in the rally car.
– Contrary to popular belief, agility in the cockpit of the rally car is extremely important. This is why we choose diverse and unusual exercises, trying to improve motor skills and reach the maximum level of human abilities required to drive the car at competition level. It is all about creating and exaggerating the real rally conditions during our training sessions. Therefore we perform coordination exercises which engage my core muscles, at very high heart rate and often with additional distracting elements. We simulate maintaining high levels of focus in these adverse conditions. Everything I have been doing for many, many years is supposed to make me even faster in the rally car – Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the second-fastest WRC-2 driver in 2019, points out.
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.
