It’s time for one of the oldest World Rally Championship rounds, present in the WRC calendar since the very beginning. Acropolis Rally Greece, round ten of the 2024 championship season, starts on Thursday (5 September). Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver, with Maciej Szczepaniak alongside, will take part in this event – which he won three times: twice in the European Rally Championship and once in the WRC3 category.
Acropolis Rally Greece takes place on gravel special stages which are quite different to the fast roads of recent rounds in Finland, Latvia or Poland. These tests are considerably slower, with loose surface and hidden rocks which often cause tyre damage. Strategy plays a crucial role during this rally and you need to carefully manage your limited tyre allocation.
According to the WRC2 Challenger rules, this is fourth outing out of possible seven for Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak. The Polish duo won Safari Rally this year and finished right behind the top three in Sardegna. In June, during Rally Poland, they showed great pace and fought for the lead but hit a stone on eleventh special stage, dropping out of contention for another victory. However, the crew is fully motivated before the second part of the campaign, looking forward to score more points in the championship.
– We return to competition after two months’ break. It’s time for another gravel event – Acropolis Rally which I enjoy a lot. We competed here many times, wrapping up our European Rally Championship title and winning in the World Rally Championship. High temperatures, typical for Greece, welcomed us and for sure it will be hot during the rally although the weather might be unpredictable. Last year we had a lot of mud here. There are many stones and rocks on the stages, sometimes you cannot avoid them and this is why this rally is often compared to a big lottery However, I love coming back here. We have completed our testing session, now it’s time for recce – with two passes of each stage. With so many kilometres in the mountains, so we will be a bit tired ahead of the rally. We won’t sleep a lot, due to long liaisons between stages. But I am looking at the future with a smile on my face. For sure we will not give up, we will try to drive quickly and smoothly, enjoying the rally – says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the WRC2 Challenger champion.
This year’s edition of iconic Acropolis Rally consists of over 305 kilometres of gravel roads, divided into 15 special stages. The competition begins on Friday morning wth Ano Pavliani test (22.47 kms, at 6:58 CET) and ends on Sunday noon with Eleftherohori 2 stage (18.29 kms, at 12:15 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.
