Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak completed Saturday’s leg of Central European Rally. The ORLEN Rally Team crew hold fourth position in both WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger standings, fighting for a top-three finish with their countrymen, Mikołaj Marczyk and Szymon Gospodarczyk – bringing their fans plenty of excitement.
Central European Rally is the penultimate round of the championship, with Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak fighting for another podium in the final standings. Aiming for success, the Polish duo need to find a perfect balance between risky battle for victories in individual rallies and points-paying strategy. After twelve special stages they moved into top three but small error on the final test of the day cost them precious seconds and pushed them back to fourth position.
– It was a good day, definitely better than the previous one – although yesterday it was also quite OK. My feeling was getting better today. I change my car, mostly by a few suspension clicks, basically before every stage – I am checking, testing. Some things go wrong and a few decisions were not correct. It’s not easy to find a good set-up after so many months without driving on tarmac – especially during this difficult rally. It was very good on some special stages and although I lost my concentration for a moment and overshot a junction, having to reverse, I still enjoy my driving. I am happy with every special stage, despite driving mostly on slicks in muddy conditions – so in theory the fun shouldn’t be there but everyone is in the same situation, so it doesn’t make sense to complain. I am sitting in my rally car, being in fight – this is the most important thing. Tomorrow we continue to push
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the reigning WRC2 Challenger champion, summed up the day.
Four special stages are planned for Sunday – two runs of KNAUS TABBERT Am Hochwald (12.17 kms) and Passauer Land (14.87 kms) tests. The competition ends around 14:00 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.
Central European Rally, unofficial results after SS14 (WRC2 Challenger):
- Gryazin/Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) 2:17:52.3
- Mareš/Bucha (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +1:50.8
- Marczyk/Gospodarczyk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:17.7
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:35.9
- McErlean/Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:55.2
- Griebel/Braun (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3:00.3
- Kremer/Kremer (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +5:59.8
- Potty/Herman (Citroën C3 Rally2) +6:03.1
- Creighton/Regan (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +6:49.6
- Cvrček/Těšínský (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +10:00.7
