It’s a dream beginning of the season for Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak. The Polish duo won Safari Rally for the third consecutive time, winning the WRC2 Challenger classification! Reigning champions of this category proved again that they perfectly cope with challenges posed by the iconic African rally, the toughest event in the calendar. The ORLEN Rally Team crew scored maximum amount of points in Kenya, which for sure will help them in their quest for ultimate success. Additionally they finished in top three of the WRC2 standings and claimed tenth position in the overall classification!
Consistent tactics, proper preparation and so-called cold head are essential in order to battle for victory in this unique rally. Trying to set the best possible stage times sometimes gets overshadowed by fight for survival. Precious experience helped Kajetanowicz to stay away from problems which could have resulted in time loss or even could have caused a retirement. Thanks to this approach he can enjoy the most important success now – victory in the WRC2 Challenger standings. The Polish competitor, co-driven by Maciej Szczepaniak, won 12 out of 19 special stages, finishing the rally with over five minutes in hand over the closest rivals. This is their third win in the Kenyan classic.
– We have scored another WRC2 Challenger victory in Safari Rally, finishing also in top three of the WRC2 classification. I am very happy. It was an incredible start of our season, we have worked for several months with the whole ORLEN Rally Team in order to be here. I’d like to thank my sponsors, Maciek, our team, RaceSeven. Thanks to my family and wife who supports me a lot. We start this season with positive approach, beginning with the toughest round of the championship. It wasn’t easy, I fought mainly against my own thoughts and ambition, and in the background against rivals and route. We won this fight. I am glad we came here and that we will be back in another event – this is already confirmed. I cannot reveal which one it is but we are already preparing for the next rally, basically starting at the finish line of the last Safari Rally stage
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, reigning WRC2 Challenger champion, commented after the rally.
Safari Rally was the third round of this year’s World Rally Championship, after Monte Carlo and Sweden. Next stop is Croatia – tarmac encounter takes place on 18-21 April and afterwards the crews return to gravel, in Portugal (9-12 May) and Sardegna (30 May-2 June). At the end of June huge motorsport fiesta comes back to Poland, with 80th ORLEN Rally Poland (27-30 June). Over the second part of the season the series will visit Latvia, Finland, Greece, Chile, Central Europe (joint round in Austria, Germany and Czechia), with the last round in Japan, at the end of November. The WRC2 crews are entitled to score points in no more than seven selected rallies.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by the title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as technical partner Delphi, Pirelli, ORLEN OIL, ATC CARGO S.A. and SJS S.A.
Safari Rally Kenya 2024, unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification:
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) 4:02:38,4
- Ciamin/Roche (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) +5:10,9
- Munster/Dumont (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) +19:10,6
- Chwist/Heller (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +23:32,6
- Tundo/Jessop (Ford Fiesta R5) +38:31,2
- Vassilakis/Krawszik (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +43:24,0
- Patel/Khan (Škoda Fabia R5) +1:06:54,7
- Virani/Shah (Škoda Fabia R5) +1:26:23,5
