The curse of South American round of the World Rally Championship is over! Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak set the record straight after last year’s misfortune and reached the finish line of Rally Chile, claiming an excellent runners-up position in their category. The ORLEN Rally Team crew did a great job in tough conditions and precious points scored in this round brought them a four-places gain in the championship standings!
Sunday’s leg of Rally Chile presented an equally big challenge as the second loop on Saturday. The special stages were wet, with thick fog in places. It is early spring in South America and it was quite clear during round eleven of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship – with difficult weather conditions and low temperatures. Despite these circumstances, many rally fans appeared along the stages, supporting their heroes.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak opted for smooth and error-free approach. Although they were not posting fastest stage times, their pace was enough to claim second position in the WRC2 Challenger standings. It means another 18 valuable points and promotion to fourth position in the championship, with 70 points scored so far. There are still two rounds to go this season and the Polish crew can score in both rallies – the WRC2 competitors cannot take part in more than seven events. Sami Pajari leads the standings (six starts and 118 points), followed by Nikolai Gryazin (five starts and 80 points) and Lauri Joona (seven starts and 78 points).
– I managed to break my Ralli Chile curse. It was important to reach the finish without problems and we achieved it. We have second position in the WRC2 Challenger standings and this is a huge result for me – especially after Saturday, when everything was fixed and it was difficult not to drive at one hundred percent. Today, ahead of every special stage, I kept repeating myself: Kajto, don’t push, you don’t have to. However, we were still enjoying our driving. There are more reasons to be happy, as this rally really moved us towards the top of the standings. Now it is time for two tarmac rounds and I have to remind myself how to drive on sealed surface. Our last asphalt event was in Japan, many months ago. I want to thank the whole ORLEN Rally Team, they did an excellent job – as usual, by the way. We return to Poland, to get ready for the Central European Rally
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the reigning WRC2 Challenger champion, summed up the rally.
Rally Chile was the final gravel event of this year’s championship. The Central European Rally takes place on 17-20 October and the 2024 season ends in Japan on 21-24 November – both rallies are run on tarmac.
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.
Rally Chile, unofficial results (WRC2 Challenger):
- Gryazin/Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) 3:07:48.5
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3:09.3
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +4:46.0
- Martínez/Alvarez (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +5:40.0
- A. Heller/Allende (Citroën C3 Rally2) +6:55.0
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +10:06.1
- P. Heller/Olmos (Citroën C3 Rally2) +10:13.2
- E. Rosselot/Cañete (Citroën C3 Rally2) +13:17.0
- Kovacs/Mussano (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +36:11.8
- V. Rosselot/Brizio (Citroën C3 Rally2) +1:03:11.8
