Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak win every stage in WRC2 over the course of very difficult Saturday leg of Safari Rally! The LOTOS Rally Team crew avoided mistakes and competed not only against their rivals but also against very tough conditions. Ahead of the final day the Polish crew lead in their category with comfortable advantage. However, they still face six special stages on Sunday, with over 75 kilometres of rough roads.
The LOTOS Rally Team crew showed excellent pace today, winning all special stages in WRC2 during the leg which will be always remembered as one of the toughest in rally history. The special stages, on rough roads in Kenya, presented a great challenge but when it started to rain on the second loop, the crews had to fight for survival and struggled to reach the finish line. Big puddles and mud stopped many cars and some crews had to retire from the competition. The Polish duo did a great job and completed the day without mistakes, leading in their category with huge advantage of over 20 minutes and holding ninth position in the overall classification of Safari Rally, trailing only top Rally1 cars.
– This is Safari. I had been aware of the difficulty level even before we arrived here and the events on Friday and Saturday only confirmed this belief. Toward the end we also got rain and mud, in addition to stones and dust. It was very slippery, I couldn’t clean the tyres on drier sections. I have never experienced such conditions in my career, so I am very pleased to be here, happy to finish the day in the lead. We have a significant advantage but we cannot be sure of anything until we reach the finish line. We still face six demanding special stages, including the Power Stage, where I want to fight for extra points. However, the most important task is to finish the rally in first position. I am proud of the work and commitment of our whole team but we need to stay focused right until the end
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the LOTOS Rally Team driver.
On Sunday there are three tests, each of them run twice: Oserian (17.81 kms), Narasha (21.47 kms) oraz Hell’s Gate (10.53 kms) – with the final pass contested as the Power Stage. In total, during Safari Rally the crews have to complete over 363 competitive kilometres.
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 SS13:
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Poland, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) 3:20:14.4
- Johnston/Kihurani (USA, Citroën C3 Rally2) +20:41.6
- Rai/Panesar (Kenya/Great Britain, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +25:45.7
- Gomes/Gomes (Zambia, Ford Fiesta Rally2) +35:26.5
- Virani/Bhatti (Kenya, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +57:07.1
- Patel/Khan (Kenya, Ford Fiesta Rally2) +1:21:58.5
