Piotr Rojewski foto-team.pl
Krzysztof Hołowczyc won both runs of Poligon Drawski stage totalling 192 km. This gave him a solid lead in Baja Poland before two Sunday’s stages of the eight round of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup and the fourth event counting for the FIM World Cup for Bajas dedicated to motorcycle and quad drivers. The X-Raid member driving the newest version of Mini All4Racing generated a merely 5-minute advantage over second overall Adam Małysz and Rafał Marton (Toyota Hilux Overdrive). Third place belongs to Martin Kaczmarski co-driven by Tapio Suominen from Finland who managed to overtake Marek Dąbrowski/Jacek Czachor (Toyota Hilux Overdrive) who lie fourth overall. That means that top four places are occupied by Polish drivers. The best competitor from abroad is the Dutchman Berhard Ten Brinke (Toyota Hilux Overdrive).
The second passage of Poligon Drawski stage took its toll. For sure the most unlucky driver was Nasser Al-Attiyah. There was a technical failure in his Toyota Hilux Overdrive and a Qatari driver was forced to retire. The same fate hit Tadeusz Błażusiak debuting in Baja Poland 2014 behind the wheel of a car. The motorcycle multiple champion rolled his car and did not finish the stage. However it is possible he would restart tomorrow with many hours loss and without a chance to fight for top places.
Among the competitors scoring points to the FIM World Cup Kuba Przygoński scored a second scratch time and reduced his loss to a leading Adrien Mare from Monaco to less than 4 minutes before two Sunday’s tests. As expected Kamil Wiśniewski (Yamaha Raptor) is the best quad driver who overtakes by over 4 minutes Zbigniew Zych.
Comments after SS 3 (Poligon Drawski):
Krzysztof Hołowczyc / Xavier Panseri (Mini All4Racing):
– I had to slow down and omit the fire brigade stopping next to the accident. Furthermore the same concerned the quad drivers. The time is a bit worse than during the first run.
Adam Małysz / Rafał Marton (Toyota Hilux Overdrive):
– It was incredibly tough. We had a front diff failure and were forced to cover about 10 km with only a front-wheel drive. The gearbox didn’t work well either – we had problems with second and third gear. Besides that it is fine.
Martin Kaczmarski / Tapio Suominen (Mini All4Racing):
– I didn’t have major problems with a car, although the drive through these bumpy roads was a fight for a life.
Marek Dąbrowski / Jacek Czachor (Toyota Hilux Overdrive):
– We have a drive failure. We don’t know what exactly it is as well as we don’t know if we manage to finish the rally.
Kuba Przygoński (KTM EXC):
– It was very fast. I drove on the limit. The event is very well organized, but it is difficult to run in the ruts after the cars. This time I had no problems.
