The FIA World Rally Championship is not only for the fastest and most powerful World Rally Cars.
Robert Kubica
There are three other competitive categories, like WRC 2, WRC 3 and JWRC. WRC 2 features S2000, RRC or R5 rally cars. These are professional rallying machines with engines developing around 280 bhp and using full-time four-wheel drive.
Back in the 2013 season, Poles Robert Kubica and Maciek Baran won the WRC 2 championship. Meanwhile, the WRC 3 class is for two-wheel drive cars with supercharged or normally-aspirated engines. The Renault Clio R3 or Toyota GT 86 R3 are examples of WRC 3 eligible automobiles.
For promising youngsters, the FIA developed a Junior World Rally Championship, where drivers under the age of 28 can compete. To encourage rivalry, JWRC crews use the same cars, which are DS3 R3s made by Citroën. Among those who have JWRC titles under their belts are stars like Sébastien Loeb (2001), Dani Sordo (2005) and Sébastien Ogier (2008).
Returning to WRC 2 will be the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who will arrive in Mikolajki as the series leader after scoring 60 points so far. A multiple FIA Middle East rally champion and a two-time winner of the Dakar Rally, he will make his Polish gravel debut, although it will not be his first rally in the country as he has already started in Baja Poland 2014. At the previous WRC round, Rally Italia Sardegna, Al-Attiyah finished fifth in WRC 2 and earned 10 points. Two points won by his Qatari compatriot, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, reduced Nasser’s series lead to three points. Unfortunately Al-Kuwari, who competed in the 2012 Rally Poland behind the wheel of a MINI Cooper S2000, decided not to start the seventh round of the WRC.
Third in the WRC 2 standings belongs currently to Jari Ketomaa, who has scored 55 points. In the previous edition of the Polish WRC round we saw a great WRC 2 battle between the experienced Finn and Estonian driver Ott Tanak. This year Ketomaa might be the one to watch in the WRC 2 category. Ukrainian driver Yuri Protasov (fourth place and 47 points) will be very motivated to repeat his recent Sardinian result, where he won the WRC 2 category after an epic battle with the Italian veteran Paolo Andreucci.
Stéphane Lefebvre, the young French talent, left the Mediterranean island without any points, so he will be keen to improve on his position in Poland. The Citroën DS3 R5 driver has already proved his pace on Polish gravel stages – in LOTOS 71st Rally Poland, Lefebvre dominated the competition in the Junior WRC category.
Scandinavian drivers from the Skoda factory team will also be fighting for a WRC 2 victory in Poland. The team from Czech Republic is bringing two Fabia R5s to Mikolajki. Esapekka Lappi (2014 European Rally Champion and 2012 Rally Poland winner) and Pontus Tiidemand (sixth place and 25 points in WRC 2 standings) will drive the cars. In addition to the Swede and the Finn, Armin Kremer (2001 European Rally Champion, eighth in the WRC 2 standings) will drive the latest version of the car.
Nicolas Fuchs from Peru is another WRC 2 regular who announced he will start LOTOS 72nd Rally Poland (seventh place and 24 points.). In 2014, the Peruvian driver finished the Masurian event in sixth in the WRC 2 category.
Among the drivers who will make guest WRC 2 appearances are three-time Polish rally champion and three-time Rally Poland winner, Krzysztof Holowczyc. He has opted for a Ford Fiesta R5 this year. French champion Julien Maurin will drive another R5.
The magic of Polish gravel stages has attracted many other competitors as well: Jonathan Hirschi from Switzerland (Peugeot 208 T16), Australian rally champion Scott Pedder (Fiesta R5) and Estonian Sander Parn (Fiesta R5), who won the Drive DMACK Cup last year, are three examples.
Unfortunately, the current European Rally Championship leader Craig Breen won’t make it to Mikolajki. The Irish driver has decided not to compete in Poland as originally planned. Among the youngsters, Karl Kruuda (Citroën DS3 R5) will be looking for his first WRC 2 points this season. Another driver capable of a top performance is Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Fiesta RRC). The Saudi Arabian finished third last year.
Holowczyc will be joined by several other Poles, who will complete strong thirty cars entry in the WRC 2 category. On the stages around Mikolajki we will see Jaroslaw Koltun and Radoslaw Raczkowski (both in Fiesta R5s), as well as Zbigniew Staniszewski (Peugeot 207 S2000) and Hubert Ptaszek (Ford Fiesta S2000). Maciek and Krzysztof Oleksowicz (both in Fiesta R5s) also announced their start, but will not score points in the WRC 2 category.