Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak gained places in the Acropolis Rally classification! The ORLEN Rally Team duo finished Friday’s competition in third place in both WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger standings. Despite car issues and 10-seconds penalty for late arrival at time control, the Polish crew completed a very good day, avoiding major problems.
Shortly after leaving the service zone between both Friday’s loops of Acropolis Rally, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak started to experience technical problems. The engine starter of their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 failed, causing a late arrival at time control – one minute too late, which equals a 10-seconds penalty. The ORLEN Rally Team crew struggled with this problem throughout the whole loop but fortunately they managed to continue, maintaining great pace. They also avoided punctures which happened to their rivals on stony roads. The Greek rally of gods is famous for its unpredictability and difficult conditions, requiring persistence and efficient strategy.
– First of all it’s been a long day but we managed to deal with extreme conditions – covering almost 140 very difficult kilometres in heat. The temperatures inside our car reached around 60 degrees, even more on the second loop. Everything got very hot, both inside and outside the car, the tyres as well. They got severe punishment on the second pass of every stage but they survived. I made a small mistake and lost a couple of seconds. We were following Solans who changed his wheel ahead of us – just after three kilometres of the fifth stage, driving in thick dust right until the finish line. It was a bit dangerous because sometimes you exit a corner seeing virtually nothing. You wonder if you should stay on throttle, if you are keeping correct line. After the service it turned out that we burnt the starter so the engine had to run throughout the whole loop. It was a bit stressful and I was afraid of stalling the car, as we could get stuck somewhere on the road, not being able to restart without help of a large group of spectators. We got a ten seconds penalty due to this problem. Mentally it was not easy to drive with such loss but we managed to continue. It is great, we are third in both WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger standings. Top three is locked out with Challenger crews – so the field is very strong
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, triple European Rally Champion.
On Saturday the crews face just over 116 kilometres of special stages, starting with the only pass of the longest test of the whole rally: 28.67-kms Rengini. Later the cars will head to Thiva (20.95 kms) and Aghii Theodori (25.87 kms). After tyre fitting zone – this is a leg without normal service zone – the crews will tackle SS10 Loutraki (12.90 kms) and another run of Aghii Theodori. They will finish the day wit 2-kms superspecial EKO, with unique location on a highway between Athens and Lamia, around a motorway service station.
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.
Acropolis Rally, unofficial results after SS6 (WRC2 Challenger):
- Virves/Lesk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) 1:43:27.8
- Pajari/Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +1.5
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +58.1
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:08.8
- Griazin/Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +1:11.6
- McErlean/Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:20.3
- Daprà/Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:33.5
- Linnamäe/Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3:14.5
- Kremer/Kremer (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +5:14.7
- Panagiotis/Bakloris (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +5:37.6
