Round eleven of the 2023 World Rally Championship – Rally Chile BIOBÍO – gets underway in South America. The gravel counter appears in the WRC calendar only for the second time, presenting a huge challenge for all crews. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak – the ORLEN Rally Team crew – are ready to compete in WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger categories.
Official shakedown – 5.75-kms stage – took place on Thursday morning local time. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak completed just one run, checking the car setup ahead of the real contest. Both Kajto and Maciek are impressed by the characteristics of special stages, reminding them of a mixture between roads in New Zealand, Portugal and Finland.
– Chile hosts the WRC round for the second time but we compete here for the first time. These stages are completely new to me – after recce they seem “nice”, although very tough at the same time. The road is narrow and really fast in some places, so you need to be very precise. Many crests make our life even more difficult, as we cannot predict the car’s behaviour – each crest is completely different, so the grip levels change. We expect high tyre wear, especially on the second loop every day. This is what we managed to learn so far. Together with the whole ORLEN Rally Team, we are prepared, with smiles on our faces. Now we need to sleep well because hard fight awaits us tomorrow
– said Kajetan Kajetanowicz, triple European Rally Champion, after the shakedown.
The official opening ceremony takes place in the evening (after midnight in Europe). The competition begins with Pulperia 1 stage, on Friday at 8:35 local time (13:35 CET). Afterwards the crews will tackle Rere 1 (13.34 kms, at 9:33 local/14:33 CET) and Rio Claro 1 (23.32 kms, at 10:27 local/15:27 CET). In the afternoon the second loop will consist of the same set of stages – at 14:42, 15:40 and 16:34 local (19:42, 20:40 and 21:34 CET).
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by the title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – PKN ORLEN, as well as technical partner Delphi Technologies, Pirelli, ATC CARGO S.A., PLATINUM ORLEN OIL brand, QUAZAR LOTOS OIL brand and SJS S.A.
