Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak won the World Championship battle in the WRC2 Challenger category! They claimed the coveted title on the last special stage of the final World Rally Championship round. This year the Polish crew beat over 100 crews, challenging them for victory. On top of that the ORLEN Rally Team duo score their fifth consecutive top-three finish in the championship standings – this is an exceptional and unprecedented achievement.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz began his quest for the World Championship title 23 years ago, when he took his first steps in professional motorsport. Year by year he gained experience, getting better and better results – scoring his first Polish Rally Championship title in 2010. Together with his co-driver Jarosław Baran, they dominated over the next couple of season, winning four titles in a row.
The next step was to conquer Europe – the driver from Ustroń started his championship run in 2015, setting the unprecedented record of three consecutive titles, never seen in 70 years of the European Rally Championship history.
In 2018 Maciej Szczepaniak joined Kajetanowicz in the co-driver’s seat and together they moved to the World Rally Championship, finishing their first full WRC season in second position in the WRC2 standings – beginning a unique journey which lasts to this day. They claimed third place in WRC3 in 2020 and the following year Kajto was second in WRC3 and Szczepaniak won the title (the points difference was caused by co-driver swap by the driver’s champion, Yohan Rossel). Last year the Polish crew scored third position in the WRC2 Open classification.
This year also brought plenty of success for the ORLEN Rally Team crew – the only one in field with five consecutive top-three finishes in the World Rally Championship standings. Now it’s time for the coveted WRC2 Challenger category, against over 100 rivals. The Polish duo started their season with victory in Mexico, adding more victories in Sardegna and Kenya. They also claimed second place in Greece but unfortunately retired in Chile. After scoring third position in the Central European Rally, they finished Rally Japan in second place – raising their tally to 126 points. Second place in the championship belongs to Gryazin and Aleksandrov (121 points), with Pajari and Mälkönen completing the top three (118 points).
– This is an incredible feeling, we won the World Championship Of course I have been dreaming about it for a very long time and I have been working hard to achieve it – but not alone. Thanks do Maciek, thanks to the whole ORLEN Rally Team, thanks to mu sponsors, RaceSeven – team working on my car, thanks to my fans and my trainers. Many people helped me to get here, to stand here as the World Champion. Obviously it does not change my life a lot. Hopefully I will be the same guy who has won four Polish and three European Championship titles, missing just the World Championship title. Now I got it. Of course many thanks to my wife who supports me every day, she is very patient. You are a diamond woman. This is our success, achieved by all of us. Thank you very much. It’s an amazing feeling – we are the World Champions
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver, summed up the rally.
A chance to celebrate this success together will come during Barbórka Rally – Kajetan Kajetanowicz will appear in Warsaw on 2 December, to meet the fans and to thank them for their support this year.
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.
