W czwartkowe popołudnie rozpoczęła się rywalizacja w Rajdzie Safari, kenijskiej rundzie Rajdowych MSafari Rally, the Kenyan round of the 2022 World Rally Championship, started on Thursday evening. The crews competed on a short superspecial Kasarani, tackling the route of almost five kilometres head-to-head, in pairs. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak have started the event in style, claiming the WRC2 lead after the opening test!
The LOTOS Rally Team crew set second-fastest time on the stage but the pacesetters, Gaurav Gill and Gabriel Morales, jumped the start and were hit with a 10-seconds penalty, which dropped them to fifth position. The Poles, aboard their Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo, lead Martin Prokop and Zdeněk Jůrka (Czech Republic, Ford Fiesta Rally2) by 0.9 seconds, with Sean Johnston and Alexander Kihurani (USA, Citroën C3 Rally2) in third position, losing 2.6 seconds.
– We have completed the first special stage of Safari Rally, so the real competition starts now. The stage was run on a course built on purpose, near the capital city of Kenya. I think that we begin a unique adventure and a great event but the most important things will happen on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We need to maintain full concentration, drive with utmost precision on every centimetre of road and use our pace notes wisely. Keep your fingers crossed, as some luck will be also useful during this rally
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, triple European Rally Champion.
As usual, the real battle starts on Friday – with three stages: Loldia (19.17 kms), Geothermal (11.68 kms) and the longest one in the rally, Kedong (31.25 kms). All tests will be run twice.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by strategic partner of the LOTOS Rally Team – Grupa LOTOS, technical partner Delphi Technologies, as well as Pirelli, SJS Driving Experience and Grupa Sikora.
Safari Rally 2022, unofficial WRC2 standings after SS1:
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Poland, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) 3:35.7
- Prokop/Jůrka (Czech Republic, Ford Fiesta Rally2) +0.9
- Johnston/Kihurani (USA, Citroën C3 Rally2) +2.6
- Patel/Khan (Kenya, Ford Fiesta Rally2) +3.8
- Gill/Morales (India/Brazil, Škoda Fabia Rally2) +7.2
- Gomes/Gomes (Zambia, Ford Fiesta Rally2) +8.1
- Rai/Panesar (Kenya/Wielka Brytania, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +13.0
- Virani/Bhatti (Kenya, Škoda Fabia Rally2) +22.7
