Kajetan ‘Kajto’ Kajetanowicz has extended his FIA European Rally Championship lead to 23 points, after finishing third on the Barum Czech Rally Zlin.
It was only the four-time Polish rally champion’s second attempt at the classic Czech event, but he and co-driver Jarek Baran were incredibly fast and consistent in their LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5 – taking one stage victory, seven runner-up spots and four third places.
Kajto defeated not only all ERC frontrunners, but also many Czech drivers – and some of them have more than dozen outings in the rally under their belts. Only two Czech rally champions and multiple winners of the event beat him to the finish line!
Kajto scored 26 ERC points in Zlin – 15 for the third position in the overall classification, and five and six for the results achieved on day one and two respectively. It means that with three rounds to go, Kajto leads the ERC drivers’ standings with a 23-point advantage over second-placed Craig Breen. Kajto also scored 69 points towards ERC Asphalt Masters classification, reducing Breen’s advantage to 29 points.
This Polish crew have been impressive all seasons, irrespective of surface and conditions, scoring 28 stage wins and 81 top three places on the 95 special stages run so far.
“There is no other rally outside Poland with so many Polish fans, there were thousands of them,” said Kajto. “It was an extremely important event for us, not only from this point of view. Some fans are probably used to our achievements but I want to assure you that we work very hard for every single success. The heart of every LOTOS Rally Team member is filled with passion so for us it is easier to sacrifice a lot in order to achieve more. Only we know how much effort and work each European Championship point costs us but I am very glad that we can share the joy of scoring them with others. This time we moved closer to our ultimate goal although the road can still prove to be very rough.”
