Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak have completed four rounds of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship. The ORLEN Rally Team crew finished the first half of the season in second position in the WRC2 Challenger standings.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz has been present on the international stage since 2018. His eighth season in the most important rally series in the world started with some novelties. Experienced co-driver Maciej Szczepaniak remains in the hot seat but the crew changed both their car and team which runs it. After several years aboard different versions Škoda, the 2023 WRC2 Challenger champion, motivated by fresh challenge and another chance to progress, chose a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, serviced by Polish tuner Rallylab Technology. The company, based in Żory, completed the lineup of the Polish team, facing the best competition in the world.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak started their campaign with excellent performance during Safari Rally, leading both WRC2 Challenger and WRC2 standings for the best part of the competition on rough African roads. However, their chances for fourth straight win in this classic event were blown away on the opening stage of third leg, due to suspension failure – with no fault of the crew. The Polish duo did not give up, fixing the car roadside. Thanks to makeshift repairs, they were able to continue and recover positions, moving up into fourth position in their category.
The ORLEN Rally Team returned to competition mid-May, in Portugal – starting a real rally marathon which lasted until the end of June, with further outings in Italy and Greece. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak faced three extremely tough WRC rounds over just six weeks. The Polish duo showed solid and consistent pace in Portugal but damper failure and unfortunate puncture caused significant time loss. They managed to recover some places and scored points for sixth position.
In Sardegna they had to battle not only against very strong field on twisty and demanding stages, but also with very high temperatures. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak shone in difficult conditions, adapting very well to the situation. They avoided major mistakes and used freshly-gained experience aboard their new car. In exciting showdown they fought for victory and although they trailed the winners by less than six seconds, second places in both WRC2 Challenger and WRC2 classifications, against strong competition, were excellent.
Triple header of gravel events in May and June ended with iconic rally which proved to be the toughest of them all. Acropolis Rally Greece, called “The Rally of Gods”, was a real endurance test for crews and their machinery. If Sardegna was hot, Greece brought event more extreme conditions, with air temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in shadow and over 70 degrees inside the rally car. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak had been prepared very well for this challenge and maintained proper rhythm right from the beginning, showing very good pace. They avoided huge rocks and successfully navigated around all traps – unlike many of their rivals – finishing three days of exhausting competition with assured and well-deserved WRC2 Challenger victory.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak have completed four rallies, scoring points in all their outings. Particularly good performance in Sardegna and Greece, with solid hauls of points. bring them second position among almost 100 crews, classified so far in the official WRC2 Challenger standings.
We are midway through our campaign which we started with many novelties. The most important one was a car change. Right from the beginning I felt that Toyota has considerable potential. With every kilometre of special stages I discovered more and more, finally reaching the moment when I could feel that this car is really “mine”. We have completed four rounds, including a real rally marathon – three World Rally Championship rounds in six weeks. I am particularly happy with our performance in Sardegna and Greece. We showed really good pace and proved that we are able to face even the most extreme conditions. Now it’s time for short regeneration, before intensive preparations of the whole ORLEN Rally Team for the final part of our campaign
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, second-placed driver in the WRC2 Challenger standings, commented after the first half of his season.
After busy period and particularly intensive previous two months, Kajetanowicz takes it a bit easy and gathers power for the last part of the season. The ORLEN Rally Team crew will skip rallies in Estonia and Finland, choosing three events out of remaining five – aiming at adding more points to their tally.
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.
