ORLEN 79th Rally Poland is completed – for the European Rally Championship competitors it was one of the fastest rounds in the whole calendar, with unique atmosphere created by thousands of Polish rally fans. The ORLEN Rally Team duo of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak contributed to ensuring proper safety levels on the stages in spectacular way, acting as a course crew.
Kajetanowicz has gained plenty of experience in the Polish classic, one of the oldest rallies in the world. He claimed three outright victories there – including his first ever outing in an R5 car in 2013, when he won on extremely challenging, muddy roads. Kajto returned to Masurian gravel stages after couple of years, this time in a unique role: driving the course car, a brand new Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. His aim was to take care of safety on the stages and at the same time to learn the car, which he will drive in anger in less than two weeks’ time, in Rally Italia Sardegna – his next WRC start.
– We drove the course car in this year’s Rally Poland, checking the safety levels on the stages and taking care of spectators’ safety. It was a real journey back in time for me, as I used to compete in this event on regular basis. We won three times there, including the overall standings of the European Rally Championship. Great memories returned, that period of my career was very exciting. Hopefully we will compete there again but for now the World Rally Championship is our priority
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz commented after ORLEN 79th Rally Poland.
The ORLEN Rally Team duo start their second rally in the 2023 WRC2 campaign on 1st June. Strong field of 38 crews, competing on gravel in Rally Italia Sardegna, includes Rossel/Dunand, Solberg/Edmondson, Mikkelsen/Eriksen, Gryazin/Alexandrov, Fourmaux/Coria or Marczyk/Gospodarczyk. The rally consists of 19 special stages, with combined length of 322.79 kms.
– I am wondering how the forthcoming battle will look like and how the new Škoda will behave when driven in anger. I drove it at 80-90% in Rally Poland, sometimes on hard tyres – prime choice in Sardegna, so I tried many different settings. This comeback, to the gravel stages in Masuria, brought me plenty of joy – and I enjoyed the chance to meet many rally fans in Mikołajki. Now we head to Sardegna. We return to proper racing, so keep you fingers crossed!
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz says ahead of Rally Italia Sardegna.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by titular partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – PKN ORLEN, as well as technical partner Delphi Technologies, Pirelli, ATC CARGO S.A., PLATINUM ORLEN OIL brand, QUAZAR LOTOS OIL brand and SJS S.A.
