Just eight days remain to the first appearance of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak in the 2026 season. The ORLEN Rally Team crew get ready for Rally Croatia, one of the World Rally Championship rounds.
Having announced his plans for the season and after unveiling their new livery, Kajetan Kajetanowicz has intensified preparations for their first outing, Rally Croatia, round four of the 2026 World Rally Championship season.
History of this rally goes back to the 1970s and for many years the event formed a part of the European Rally Championship. Its debut in the World Rally Championship schedule took place in 2021. After last year’s brief “downgrade” back to the FIA ERC, Croatia will once again host the best rally crews of the world. However, this time, the organisers introduce a number of new features. The event is no longer based in Zagreb but rather on the Automotodrom Grobnik circuit, located near Rijeka. This change also resulted in some modifications to the route. Most of the stages prepared for the upcoming edition have never been used in a World Rally Championship round.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak have already won Rally Croatia. In 2021, they triumphed in the WRC3 category. Next season they claimed second position in the WRC2 Open classification. In order to prepare in the best possible way for their third outing on technically challenging, fast stages with variable grip levels, Kajto and Maciek are implementing an extensive testing plan – it is even more important, as the ORLEN Rally Team duo last competed on tarmac over sixteen months ago, in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Work on the proper set-up of their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 and on getting proper feeling started in Poland, with a testing session near Ustroń, hometown of Kajetanowicz. The next step took place in Croatia, ending with participation in the 5th Quattro River Rally. The Polish crew, driving a course car – so-called “zero crew”, clocked valuable mileage on roads with characteristics quite similar to the upcoming WRC round. They repaid the rally organisers’ trust by checking safety conditions on the stages, inspecting them just before timed runs of the competitors.
I am already counting down the days until our first challenge of the season. Announcing my plans for this campaign, I said that I want to be prepared in the best possible way, no matter how many rallies we participate in. And Rally Croatia, a very demanding round of the World Rally Championship, is no exception. We completed several testing sessions, including participation in the Quattro River Rally. We have covered plenty of kilometres on different roads, in changing weather conditions. The GR Yaris Rally2 in tarmac specification holds fewer and fewer secrets for me. I am building my feeling on fast, dirty stages with many cuts – and my appetite for driving is only growing. We are about to complete our preparations ahead of the upcoming World Rally Championship round. Keep your fingers crossed, and we will see you soon on the special stages in Croatia
– commented Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the 2023 WRC2 Challenger champion.
Rally Croatia takes place on 9-12 April. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak will compete in a field of over 20 crews in Rally2 cars. The route consists of 300 competitive kilometres, divided into 20 special stages.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as by technical partner Delphi and ORLEN OIL.
