Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jarek Baran began competition in Circuit of Ireland Rally – first tarmac round of this year’s FIA European Rally Championship – with Qualifying Stage run today. On Tuesday and Wednesday 53 crews which entered the Irish event did recce runs on nine special stages – each of them will be tackled twice. Fierce competition for points in overall standings begins tomorrow and on top of that the best European rally drivers will fight for points in FIA ERC Asphalt Master classification, for tarmac surface specialists in the oldest rally series in the world.

3.22-kms Qualifying Stage took place on very narrow road with numerous crests, with beautiful sea view. Due to yesterday’s rain, the crews had to face changeable grip and tricky sections where the tarmac was still damp. After two practice runs, at 3:03 p.m. CET the competitors began the fight for the best result which gives the priority in selection of starting position for Day 1 of the rally. LOTOS Rally Team crew showed excellent pace and recorded second fastest time, just 0.5 second behind the winner, Irish driver Robert Barrable. This result means that Kajto and Jarek scored their fourth top-three finish in a row on the Qualifying Stage of FIA ERC counter.

Kajetanowicz and Baran – winners of Jännerrallye, this year’s curtain raiser in FIA ERC – have scored the biggest amount of points to date and hold the lead in overall standings before Circuit of Ireland Rally. Polish crew of LOTOS Rally Team leads Irishman Craig Breen and Frenchman Robert Consani. Fourth-placed Alexey Lukyanuk scored 13 points less than Kajto and Jarek.

Fight for victory in Circuit of Ireland Rally will take place on 18 special stages with total length of 215 kms. The first test – 14,54-kms Bucks Head stage – starts tomorrow at 11:48 CET.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz: – The weather is spotty since our arrival in the island – in short, it is typical British weather – and it guarantees a high level of emotion and tough decisions not only on special stages, but also in service area – with tyre choice. Today’s Qualifying Stage was an excellent appetiser of rally driving on breathtaking stages in Northern Ireland. Qualifying run, although quite short, fired me up before competition on Friday and Saturday. After yesterday’s rain there were some tricky places, including one with a lot of mud, but we managed to come through unscathed. I compete in Northern Ireland for the first time in my career and these roads represent a huge challenge not only for a newcomer, but it makes this event even more exciting. The stages are very narrow and extremely fast, there are many bumps and jumps. It is just fantastic, although tarmac rally with such characteristics is completely new to me. Qualifying Stage results show that we did our homework before coming here and we are well prepared for fight with drivers who have started here in the past and with local stars. Today we drove fast, it was a good warm-up, but the rally starts tomorrow. We are competing on the island which is famous for changeable weather so we can expect everything.

Jarek Baran: – In the heyday of VHS tapes – in my case it was not a long time ago – we used to watch Irish Rally Championship highlights until the early hours. I remember that I was very impressed with these stages. Today, after recce, I am sure that Irish tarmac tests are absolutely amazing, it is even difficult to find right words to describe them. Many people think of narrow lanes with hedgerows on both sides but you have to add extremely fast sections with sudden jumps and bumps in undulating landscape – like in a crazy rollercoaster. The rhythm changes constantly so the crews have to maintain maximum level of concentration. Here the pace notes play really crucial role.