Round ten of the 2024 World Rally Championship – Acropolis Rally – takes place in Greece. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak compete on rough gravel stages, fighting for top positions in the WRC2 Challenger category. After nine special stages they are just four seconds behind a podium place.
This is fourth event of the Polish duo in their 2024 campaign. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak fight for another title in the WRC2 Challenger category – for privateers. The ORLEN Rally Team crew maintain good and consistent pace aboard their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, holding fourth position in the standings – with just 3.8-seconds gap to a podium position ahead of the second loop on Saturday.
– We are more or less in the middle of the Greek event, midway through Saturday. It will be a very long day, basically just like any other day of Acropolis Rally and during our preparations. The stages are long, difficult, very twisty – and inside the car it’s even hotter than yesterday. People often ask about working in these hot conditions – difficult to bear even if you’re just walking around. Well, it’s like in a small sauna. I could compare it to training in a gym while solving mathematical tasks, with temperatures reaching 65 degrees and heart rate at 180. This is how it looks like. Moreover, you have to solve those tasks with precision. The rally of gods is very demanding but we are doing good job. We have a few problems, hearing some knocking noise in the car, the steering is slightly bent. We are trying to fix it as much as we can without service. Now it’s time to change the tyres and head to the next stages
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
After three special stages the crews headed to tyre fitting zone and there is no typical service break today. The second loop consists of SS10 Loutraki stage (12.90 kms) and another run of SS Aghii Theodori – its surface was already very rough during the first pass, with punctures for many drivers. Saturday ends with 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 SS9 (WRC2 Challenger):
- Pajari/Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 2:36:42.8
- Virves/Lesk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +26.1
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:21.1
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:24.9
- McErlean/Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:13.9
- Linnamäe/Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3:14.3
- Daprà/Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3:42.9
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8:25.9
- Panagiotis/Bakloris (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8:28.7
- Kremer/Kremer (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9:15.5
