Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak started day two of Safari Rally as leaders in both WRC2 categories. Unfortunately, they suffered a suspension failure in their car already on the opening stage and the Polish duo, instead of battling against time, had to fight for comeback to the competition.
Sleeping Warrior – this is the name of almost 27-kilometres long, extremely difficult test, which halted Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak on Saturday. The Polish WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger leaders had to stop on the stage when a wishbone failed on a straight part of the road. The ORLEN Rally Team crew after hard-fought battle continued the stage, losing 30 minutes. The car was not repaired completely but they were able to cross the finish line and to complete another two special stages, ultimately reaching the service zone. The Rallylab Technology team do their best to proceed with further repairs.
– Unfortunately, on the first stage, on a straight part of the road, a bolt in our left rear wishbone came loose or just broke. We almost lost the whole wheel, together with halfshaft. We had to stop and fix it. We put another bolt in there, just to reach the service
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the WRC2 Challenger champion, summed up this incident.
Just like on the opening loop, the crews will compete on three special stages in the afternoon: SS14 Sleeping Warrior 2 (26.97 kms); SS15 Elmenteita 2 (17.31 kms) and SS16 Soysambu 2 (28.97 kms).
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by the title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as technical partner Delphi and ORLEN OIL.
Safari Rally Kenya, unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification after SS13:
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 2:56:18.2
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:17.9
- Domínguez/Peñate (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9:18.9
- Chwist/Heller (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +17:13.8
- Tundo/Jessop (Ford Fiesta R5) +26:32.4
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +46:49.3
- Wahome/Okundi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +58:46.5
- Díaz-Aboitiz/Ibáñez Sotos (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:15:39.7
- Vasilakis/Harryman (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +1:44:40.9
- Anwar/Din (Ford Fiesta R5) +1:21:43.8
