It happens this coming weekend: ORLEN 80th Rally Poland, making its comeback to the World Rally Championship calendar, takes place on 27-30 June, on gravel special stages of Warmia and Masuria. Reigning WRC2 Challenger champions – Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak – take part in this great rally fiesta. The ORLEN Rally Team crew have prepared for their third outing in this event on Masurian roads.
This weekend Kajetan Kajetanowicz with his co-driver Maciej Szczepaniak will tackle extremely fast and spectacular special stages of ORLEN 80th Rally Poland, round seven of the 2024 World Rally Championship (WRC) season. The Polish duo have completed two days of testing together with RaceSeven team, trying to find the best set-up of their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 ahead of the proper competition.
– We have two days of testing on Masurian gravel under our belts. I feel a bit like at home, although it’s been a long time since my last competitive outing here. For sure I can say that I know the roads of remote, foreign WRC rounds better than my home rally! However, I feel a particular fondness for this event, we used to be very quick here. It will be great to compete in the Polish round, among our home fans. The atmosphere is already hot and during the rally many spectators will give us wings and also some courage, as you have to be brave on these stages. Rally Poland is very fast, you have to push the pedal to the metal right from the word go. I hope we found good set-up during our tests. I am happy to be here and I hope that the fans will also enjoy my driving
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
Officially, Kajetanowicz takes part in Rally Poland for the tenth time. His first outing was in 2006, aboard a Peugeot 206 XS. He claimed his first victory on the Masurian special stages in 2010, driving a Subaru Impreza and beating some more powerful cars. One year later he repeated this feat, standing on the top step of the podium again. Win number three – the most memorable one – came in 2013. On wet, muddy special stages he put on a great show, battling for victory in his Ford Fiesta R5 against legendary Bryan Bouffier, beating also plenty of rally stars, including Robert Kubica, Krzysztof Hołowczyc, Jan Kopecký and Michał Sołowow. Last year Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak appeared on special stages of ORLEN 79th Rally Poland in a course car.
This year the organisers have prepared almost 304 kilometres of special stages. On Thursday evening (27 June at 17:00 CET) the crew will arrive at the town square in Mikołajki, where the official starting ceremony takes place. Shortly afterwards the competitors will move to nearby Mikołajki Arena – the rally starts with spectacular SS1 Mikołajki Arena (2.5 kms) at 19:05 CET.
On Friday morning (28 June) around 8:45 CET the crews will tackle the longest special stage of the whole rally: SS2 Stańczyki (29.4 kms). This loop consists also of SS3 Wieliczki (12.9 kms) and SS4 Olecko (13.2 kms). There is no service break this day, just tyre fitting and refuelling zones. The same set of stages will be run in the afternoon and the first leg of the rally will end with SS8 Mikołajki Arena (2.5 kms). Friday’s total length is 113.5 competitive kilometres.
Four stages await on Saturday (29 June) – three of them will be run twice, with combined length of 124.1 competitive kilometres. The first loop is slightly longer, consisting of SS9 Świętajno (18.5 kms), SS10 Gołdap (19.9 kms), SS11 Czarne (22.4 kms) and SS12 Mikołajki Arena (2.5 kms). After visiting the service park, the second part of the day will begin after 16:00 CET and the crews will repeat three opening stages of the morning’s loop.
ORLEN 80th Rally Poland traditionally ends on Sunday (30 June) – this day begins around 9:00 CET with SS16 Gmina Mrągowo (20.8 kms), followed by SS17 Mikołajki (10.73 kms). This stage includes a section of the Mikołajki Arena test but in different configuration. After regrouping break the crews will repeat the same pair of stages, finishing with Power Stage – SS20 Mikołajki finishes on the Mikołajki Arena. Unofficial results should be published around 15:00 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.
