The ORLEN Rally Team crew completed the Friday’s afternoon loop of Safari Rally Kenya without further problems and returned to the top of the WRC2 Challenger standings, adding two more stage wins to their tally. At the same time Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak moved up to second position in the WRC2 classification and hold ninth position in the overall rally standings!
More and more clouds gathered over the stages during the second loop of Safari Rally Kenya but despite threats of rain the conditions fortunately remained dry. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak left the service park with more motivation and – the most important thing – a fully operational car. The Polish duo started the loop with stage victory on Loldia 2 test (19.17 kms), added a second-fastest time on Geothermal 2, losing just 0.1 seconds to stage winners. On the final test – Kedong, the longest stage of the day (31.50 kms) – everything went smoothly this time and the ORLEN Rally Team crew won this run with significant advantage of 26 seconds.
– Everything goes according to our plan. We are leading the WRC2 Challenger standings, holding runners-up place in the WRC2 classification – these positions are very good. The special stages run through rough terrain, we drive in clouds of fesh-fesh. It caused us some problems on the first loop, when we lost our WRC2 Challenger lead for a moment, before returning to the top after the service. It is difficult to manage the pace in sand, deep ruts and around huge stones – after all it is not possible to avoid them all. Just like last year, we are driving a bad car – it is prepared perfectly but it’s not handling very well. This kind of set-up helps us to survive. The suspension is not prepared to drive at fast pace – its role is to absorb many hits. Everything is prepared to survive but even this approach does not guarantee us anything. I am happy to be here but there are still two long days ahead
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver, summed up the day.
On Saturday the competitors face three special stages, again passed twice. The day starts with SS8 Soysambu 1 (29.32 kms, starts at 6:01 CET), followed by SS9 Elmenteita 1 (15.08 kms, at 7:01 CET) and the longest test of the rally, SS10 Sleeping Warrior 1 (36.08 kms, at 8:03 CET). The crews will repeat the same loop after service break: at 12:34, 13:35 and 14:33 CET.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by the title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as technical partner Delphi, Pirelli, ORLEN OIL, ATC CARGO S.A. and SJS S.A.
Safari Rally Kenya 2024, unofficial results after SS7 (WRC2 Challenger):
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) 1:26:36.9
- Ciamin/Roche (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) +26.4
- Munster/Dumont (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) +1:39.4
- Domínguez/Peñate (Citroën C3 Rally2) +3:26.8
- Patel/Khan (Škoda Fabia R5) +3:52.5
- Chwist/Heller (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +5:44.4
- Tundo/Jessop (Ford Fiesta R5) +11:48.1
- Díaz-Aboitiz/Sanjuan (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +12:44.7
- Vassilakis/Krawszik (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +17:47.8
- Virani/Shah (Škoda Fabia R5) +21:22.6
