The ORLEN Rally Team crew of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak is already in Sardegna – host of round six of the 2024 World Rally Championship, starting on Friday. The Polish duo have completed pre-event testing session, preparing themselves for their second outing this year. Kajetan and Maciej feel great motivation ahead of competition in very strong field during the Italian classic.
Following successful outing in Safari Rally Kenya, with WRC2 Challenger victory for Kajto and Maciek, it’s time for another chapter of their 2024 campaign. The ORLEN Rally Team duo know Rally Italia Sardegna very well – this is their sixth start as a crew on this Italian island. Undoubtedly, the Polish crew enjoy great memories from Sardegna, with three top-three finishes to their names. Last year Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak won the WRC2 Challenger standings and scored third position in the overall WRC2 classification. The Poles have completed their pre-event testing session, as always using this opportunity to get used to extremely rocky and tricky special stages around Alghero. It was also an opportunity to check and prepare the set-up of their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
This is not the first time for Kajetan Kajetanowicz on the roads of Sardegna – and he will compete in a brand new helmet, with images of mechanical heart and symbols of his nearest and dearest. The graphic design and painting were done by trusted artist Szymon Chwalisz.
– We have completed our testing session in Sardegna, getting ready for the Italian WRC counter on two special stages. The time differences between runs were significant and it means that there was plenty of road cleaning. I tried to search for even better set-up and improve it compared to last year, although we managed to score a podium here. I know this rally very well. The atmosphere is great and the special stages provide a huge challenge. Tyre management is not easy but we are ready to fight, together with the whole ORLEN Rally Team. We compete in record-breaking field but we feel prepared, with lot of heart to fight. Keep your fingers crossed
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the WRC2 Challenger champion, said ahead of the rally.
The schedule of this year’s Rally Italia Sardegna is quite unique, more condensed than other World Rally Championship rounds. The competition itself takes exactly 48 hours from start to finish, starting on Friday afternoon, around 14:33 CET. During the opening day the crews face two special stages, each of them run twice – starting with the longest test of the rally, Osilo-Tergu (25.65 kms), followed by Sedini-Castelsardo (13.26 kms).
Four different special stages await on Saturday, divided into four separate loops. The crews start Tempio Pausania test (12.03 kms) around 7:41 CET and afterwards head to Tula (22.61 kms). After short regrouping, they will repeat the same pair of stages. The afternoon challenge for drivers, co-drivers and their machines begins with Monte Lerno-Monti di Ala stage (25.31 kms), with its famous Mickey’s Jump, and the second part of the day ends with Coiluna-Loelle test (14.53 kms) – with almost 150 competitive kilometres to complete on Saturday!
As always, the rally ends on Sunday – with two loops of two stages. The first one, Cala Flumini (12.55 kms), starts around 8:00 CET, and afterwards the crews will head to Sassari-Argentiera (7.10 kms). Second run of the same tests will take place after service break and the rally is set to finish before 13:00 CET.
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.
