The World Rally Championship visit tarmac roads in Croatia for the first time. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak, representing LOTOS Rally Team, begin their 2021 campaign with this round. The Polish crew completed their preparations ahead of the event which starts tomorrow morning.
Rally Croatia is contested on over 300 competitive kilometres, west of Zagreb. The organisers have prepared ten special stages and each of them will be run twice. There are 65 crews on the starting list, including Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak. The LOTOS Rally Team duo take advantage of the latest spec of Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo and its upgrades compared to the last year’s version include new suspension. Another change is visible on the bodywork: with Grupa Sikora among team’s partners.
– I am very happy to be here. A new tarmac round in the calendar is a great challenge for all drivers – even for those with more experience on narrow, very bumpy and dirty special stages, with many crests. This nice weather could be deceiving because for sure there will be plenty of mud on forest roads. There are also many sections where you can cut the corners very deep, with a whole car width. The difficulties of this rally lie in changeable grip levels – they can change a few times in one corner. We did a lot of work to prepare ourselves in the best possible way. All crews are in the same situation, we use the same, very good tyres. Our title bid starts here but some competitors have already contested a few rallies and they are in the groove. However, we are looking ahead and we want to enjoy every metre of the stages. We have a positive attitude and we want to improve our pace right from the beginning
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the LOTOS Rally Team driver.
The fight for victory starts on Friday, with Rude-Plešivica stage (6.94 kms), followed by Kostanjevac-Petruš Vrh (23.76 kms), Jaškovo-Mali Modruš Potok (10.10 kms) and Pećurkovo Brdo-Mrežnički Novaki (9.11 kms). The second loop on Friday, after service break in Zagreb, starts as 15:01 CET.
Saturday – the longest rally day – brings another 122 competitive kilometres, with two loops of four stages: Mali Lipovec-Grdanjci (20.30 kms), Stojdraga-Gornja Vas (20.77 kms), Krašić-Vrškovac (11.11 kms) and Vinski Vrh-Duga Resa (8.78 kms). On Sunday the competition starts with the longest test, Bliznec-Pila (25.20 kms). The first run begins at 7:20 CET and the second one at 10:11 CET. The stage Zagorska Sela-Kumrovec (14.09 kms) starts at 8:38 CET, with the final run – as the Power Stage – at 13:18.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by strategic partner of the LOTOS Rally Team – Grupa LOTOS – as well as Delphi Technologies, Pirelli, SJS Driving Experience and Grupa Sikora.
