• Krzysztof Holowczyc hampered by problems and comes ninth
The Baja Poland, the sixth round of the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup that was held around the city of Stettin, proved to be a difficult event for X-raid. The two Poles Martin Kaczmarski and Bartłomiej Boba who raced their maiden rally with the MINI ALL4 Racing, secured the good eleventh place, in the three-day event. Meanwhile, Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL) and Andreas Schulz (GER) were hampered by problems and had to settle for finishing ninth, in the end. And the Argentinean pairing Federico Villagra and Jorge Perez Companc had to retire early due to health problems.
Just in his home event, Holowczyc had to cope with bad luck. With the prologue and the first two special stages contested, the Polish MINI ALL4 Racing driver still held the lead. But in the first of the two Sunday special stages, gearbox problems did not only cost him 50 minutes but also a position in the top 10. Holowczyc, however, just refused to lose his motivation. X-raid solved the problem and Holowczyc thanked the team by winning the final special stage. In addition, he regained a lot of the lost time, thus working his way back up to the points.
At the same time, Kaczmarski convinced with a very good debut appearance at the wheel of the MINI ALL4 Racing. The Pole impressed with a consistent performance, made it to the top 10 in every special stage and finished eleventh, in the Baja Poland. Meanwhile, the Argentineans Federico Villagra and Jorge Perez Companc in the MINI ALL4 Racing also had cope with a huge dose of bad luck. Following a jump, the pairing made a hard landing and Perez complained about neck pains, afterwards. For safety reasons, the pairing opted for retiring. On Friday, they had made for a rare situation in the Baja: in the prologue, they set exactly the same time as Holowczyc.
FIA World Cup standings after six rounds:
Drivers Ranking (tbc)
1st Jean-Louis Schlesser 126
2nd Nani Roma 120
3rd Krzysztof Holowczyc 118
Team Ranking (tbc)
1st Monster Energy X-raid 185
2nd Sonangol Schlesser 126
