ORLEN 80th Rally Poland is underway! Great competition in round seven of the 2024 World Rally Championship started on Thursday evening, on Mikołajki Arena, with a short 2.5 kms blast through the superspecial stage. The ORLEN Rally Team duo of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak showed solid pace, setting fifth-fastest time in their category.
Thousands of rally fans onsite and even more in front of the TV screens followed live the action on the opening stage of ORLEN 80th Rally Poland. The competition, which consists of nineteen tests and almost 304 kilometres of special stages, started with SS1 Mikołajki Arena (2.5 kms). Kajetan Kajetanowicz, who competes on gravel roads of Warmia and Masuria for the first time after eight years’ break, tackles the Polish round of the World Rally Championship – with Maciej Szczepaniak alongside, they showed solid pace and feature in fifth position in the WRC2 Challenger standings after Thursday’s leg, just less than one second behind a podium place.
– I am happy that this rally is already underway. I have been waiting for many weeks, if not months. It was a time of extensive preparation ahead of this rally, of promoting this event. It’s been a long time since I was here for the last time – a couple of years have passed in terms of my starts in Rally Poland but I feel good inside the car and I hope we can make it work over the next three days. Today we had a great show in Mikołajki and tomorrow, on Saturday and Sunday we have a proper competition. The organisers have prepared some really amazing stages – even the Sunday looks difficult, maybe the most difficult of all days. The final leg is demanding and for sure we will be also tired after long days without service breaks – but I am happy that we are here. I enjoy driving and I hope it will remain like this
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
Proper competition in ORLEN 80th Rally Poland starts on Friday at 8:45 CET. The crews face seven special stages, including the longest test of the rally – SS2/SS5 Stańczyki (29,4 kms). There are 113 kilometres to complete, without service break between two loops – time for the mechanics will come at the end of the day.
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.
ORLEN 80th Rally Poland, unofficial results after SS1 (WRC2 Challenger):
- Daprà/Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) 1:49.6
- Griazin/Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +0.2
- Pajari/Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +0.3
- Marczyk/Gospodarczyk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +0.8
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1.1
=. Kołtun/Pleskot (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1.1 - Joona/Hussi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1.5
- Kremer/Kremer (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2.5
- McErlean/Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2.7
- Korhonen/Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +2.9
=. Triviño/Fuentes (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2.9
