LOTOS Rally Tam driver and FIA European Rally Championship leader tackles round three of FIA ERC – Circuit of Ireland Rally – for the first time in his career. This is one of the oldest rallies in the world, first held in 1931, and it was run 72 times to date. For many years the Irish event was the longest tarmac rally in the world: its route, over 1000 miles in length, followed the coastline around whole island.

This year the rally takes place on 2-4 of April and runs through extremely demanding but also picturesque asphalt roads south of Belfast: capital city of Northern Ireland, where the event is based. The crews will fight on nine different special stages (tackled twice) with total length of just over 215 kilometres. Three out of nine special stages are new. The rest of the stages stays exactly the same as in last year’s rally.

Four-time Polish rally champion prepared a special surprise for Polish and Irish supporters and for his sister. Kajetanowicz will wear a helmet with unique livery, designed especially for this event. The helmet of FIA ERC leader will feature Polish and Irish national colours, combined with symbols of these two nations: eagle and leprechaun – little old man who, according to Irish folklore, inhabits the island. There will be a portrait of Kajetan’s sister on the backside of the helmet – she has been living in Ireland for couple of years.

In opening two rounds of FIA European Rally Championship, run on snow and ice, Kajetan Kajetanowicz not only confirmed his great abilities in winter conditions by securing FIA ERC Ice Master title but also grabbed and maintained the lead in overall standings. British round marks the beginning of fight in FIA Asphalt Master classification. LOTOS Rally Team crew will tackle their first tarmac event in past six months, excluding their victorious outing in Polish Barborka Rally. Competition will be extremely tough: 73rd edition of Circuit of Ireland Rally attracted exceptionally strong field of 53 crews. Kajetanowicz and Baran will fight not only with FIA European Rally Championship frontrunners but also with a group of very quick British and Irish drivers. In total there are 18 crews in top ERC1 category, using R5 and S2000 cars.

During preparations before their first outing in Circuit of Ireland Rally, LOTOS Rally Team had one day of testing near Ustron in Polish mountains, where their Ford Fiesta R5 was prepared to the characteristics of British special stages. Second day of testing is planned in Ireland, on roads of Kilkenny County, in order to confirm the effects of set-up work done in Poland.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz: –Already before heading to Ireland, during our tests in Poland, all LOTOS Rally Team focused on optimum preparation of ourselves and our Fiesta to competition in Circuit of Ireland Rally. Six months have passed since Tour de Corse, the previous tarmac round of European Rally Championship, so I miss driving on asphalt. I know that we have to stay extremely focused and prepare ourselves well before fight on very complicated stages around Belfast. From what I heard you can not imagine a more beautiful and demanding rally for the driver. The stages are narrow, extremely fast and bumpy, full of jumps – so we will spend a lot of time in the air :-) These jumps mean that the rally reality for the crew changes a lot. This rally is also a huge challenge for our Fiesta R5. On long straights the power of the cars is extremely important and bumpy surface is a big test for suspension. We will do our best to extract everything from our car and use our strengths to build up confidence on stages which are completely new to us. We will fight because I love rallies and I have additional motivation, as my relatives and a lot of Polish people live in United Kingdom.