The fifth round of the Polish Rally Championship"Orlen Rally” was taken place from 18-20 September. It was the second gravel event of the season, got off to a good start for Symtech Racing. Subaru Poland’s factory driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz was straight onto the pace with some very promising times, having clearly learnt several useful lessons from the first loose-surface rally of the season earlier in the year.

Kajetanowicz managed to easily climb up to fifth place, in the tyre tracks of his rivals, and he steadily reduced the time deficit to the leaders with every competitive kilometre that passed. His gap to the frontrunners was a mere 0.33 seconds per kilometre on the final stage of the opening day, proof of Kajetanowicz’s solid performance.

On the second day, the Pole set off with some suspension adjustments to his car that he very much appreciated. The first special stage went well and he felt that the new settings worked as he expected. Unfortunately, however, a loose stone then put an end to his rally by breaking an oil cooler pipe. Kajetanowicz reacted promptly by parking his car at the side of the road but sadly he was unable to return to action.

Kajetanowicz : “It’s such a shame that we had to stop as everything was going really well. My Subaru Impreza WRX STI was competitive and I felt that the car was even better with the new set-up that we had on the second day. But this sort of bad luck is something that can always happen in rallying. Luckily, we are allowed to drop a score under the championship rules, so now we really look forward to the final round of the year in two weeks time.”
The championship switches back to asphalt for the next event, the Rallye Dolnoslaski from 9-10 October 2009. The entire Subaru Poland team will be aiming to finish the year on a high with another strong performance.