Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak begin their 2020 World Rally Championship season. After claiming runners-up spot in 2019, they will take part in seven WRC-3 rounds this year, starting with Rally Mexico (12-15 March 2020). The Polish driver will compete in this event for the first time in his career. The LOTOS Rally team crew will drive a Skoda Fabia R5 evo, run by Spanish company RaceSeven.
Rally Mexico marks a new point on rally map of Kajetanowicz. This round consists of almost 325 competitive kilometres and it has been a part of the World Championship calendar for 16 years. Pure speed is not enough here: on these roads you need to be smart and employ a well-considered strategy. The condition of gravel route is often very bad, with jagged ruts and protruding stones. On top of that the competition takes place at high altitude (one of the stages climbs to over 2600 metres above sea level!) and the stages are very diversified, which means that this round is one of the most difficult rallies in the WRC calendar.
– We have been preparing to this outing for a couple of months. Our next World Rally Championship season comes true thanks to hard work of the whole LOTOS Rally Team, combined with confidence of our Partners. I am happy that we will represent our country together, in the most difficult rallies, in remote parts of the world. We face another test and its results will be known at the end of this season. I am filled with optimism. Last year we proved that we could fight for top results. We will drive a new version of Skoda Fabia R5 and together with the whole team I believe that this car will give us plenty of possibilities
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, runner-up in the 2019 WRC-2 standings.
The competition in Rally Mexico begins on Thursday (12 March 2020) with an extremely colourful official starting ceremony in Guanajuato. Afterwards the crews will complete two runs of the city stage (1.12 kms, starts at 03:08 and 03:31 CET). The longest leg is scheduled on Friday, with ten special stages and over 135 competitive kilometres. First loop consists of four tests: El Chocolate 1 (31.45 kms, starts at 16:08 CET), Ortega 1 (17.24 kms, at 17:16 CET), Las Minas 1 (13.69 kms, at 18:14 CET) and Parque Bicentenario (2.71 kms, at 19:12 CET). The afternoon loop begins with another runs of El Chocolate (at 22:35 CET), Ortega (at 23:43 CET) and Las Minas (00:41 CET). It ends with a couple of short superspecials: Autódromo 1 and 2 (2.33 kms, at 02:21 and 02:26 CET) and Street Stage León (0,73 kms, at 03:14 CET).
On Sunday there are nine special stages, with combined length just one kilometre shy of Friday’s total. The Guanajuatito 1 test (24.96 kms) starts at 15:58 CET and it will be followed by Alfaro 1 (16.99 kms, at 17:01 CET) and Derramadero 1 (21.78 kms, at 18:08). After a visit in the service park the crews will tackle the same stages at 21:56, 22:59 and 00:08 CET. This day also ends with some short stages: Autódromo 3 and 4 (2.33 kms, at 01:38 and 01:43 CET) and Rock & Rally León (1.62 kms, at 02:26).
The final leg takes place on Sunday, 15 March. It consists of three stages: Otates (the longest test of the whole rally – 33.61 kms, at 15:38 CET), San Diego (12.76 kms, at 16:56 CET) and El Brinco Power Stage (9.64 kms, at 18:18 CET). The rally finishes at around 19:00 CET.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by strategic partner of the LOTOS Rally Team – Grupa LOTOS – as well as Delphi Technologies, Driving Experience and Pirelli.
