Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak were fighting for victory in ORLEN 80th Rally Poland right from the beginning of Saturday’s leg. The Polish crew, pleasing rally fans with their pace, held second position in the WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger standings until special stage number eleven, staying in touch with the leaders and battling for the top spot. Unfortunately, on the eleventh stage their car hit a bump in right corner, damaging its suspension after hitting a stone. Despite heroic efforts, the ORLEN Rally Team crew had to retire from today’s leg. They returned to Mikołajki, where their mechanics will work on the car, preparing it for comeback on Sunday.
After Thursday’s and Friday’s special stages of ORLEN 80th Rally Poland, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak held second position in the WRC2 standings. They pleased thousands of spectators along special stages in Warmia and Masuria with their brave driving and great pace. On Saturday they started with equally good performance, trying to close the gap to the leading crew, Pajari/Mälkönen. Unfortunately, around 19 kilometres of SS11 Czarne (22.4 kms) they hit a stone, damaging their suspension. The crew immediately started to work on fixing the car and they even managed to finish the stage, but with huge time loss. The ORLEN Rally Team duo tried to continue but it was impossible due to exceeding the maximum permitted lateness. Big crowd of fans welcomed them back in the service park, thanking them for excellent fight and great emotions. Kajetan also expressed his gratitude for their support, again calling for safe behaviour on special stages and promising that he will do his best tomorrow.
– It is a great feeling, to be able to fight against the best drivers of the world. Of course we are doing our best during every rally but here, in Poland, it is a unique feeling for me. We were fighting for victory, midway through special stage number eleven we were equal with Pajari, the rally leader, but shortly afterwards the car went on two wheels and I had to react, to avoid rolling. Our suspension got damaged and this is how our dreams of podium – of victory – have ended. This has been – and still is – a great honour to compete here and to show very good pace. We are still able to drive fast and it was a real pleasure to show it right here – in front of Polish fans. I hope we will compete tomorrow – however, not for position, as we lost too much time. We fixed the car in order to come back to Mikołajki but we had to retire due to lateness. We will be back tomorrow and enjoy our driving as much as we did – and hopefully our fans will also keep their fingers for us
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
Sunday’s leg consists of four special stages – two runs of Gmina Mrągowo (20.80 kms) and Mikołajki (11.20 kms) tests.
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.
