As early as this Friday, 21 July, Mikołaj Marczyk and his pilot Szymon Gospodarczyk will begin their struggle in the Rally Estonia in the WRC2 category. For the ORLEN Team and PFNTeam100 crew, it will be their third race this year in the WRC World Rally Championship.

I certainly have high hopes for this rally. Last year we entered the competition pretty well, but then I messed up. From that point on this rally has had that bittersweet dimension for us. We are coming back here and I am aware that we have something to prove

— Mikołaj Marczyk assures.

In the competitions held so far this year, the rally team can be proud of victory in the PLATINUM 7th Janusz Kulig and Marian Bublewicz Memorial Rally, as well as 2nd place in the general classification of the Polish Championship and 3rd place in the general classification of the European Championship during the Rally of Poland, 4th place in the WRC2 Challenger classification during the Rally of Portugal or second place in the same classification during the Rally of Sardinia. The team’s participation in the subsequent WRC World Rally Championship events is possible largely thanks to the support of the Polish National Foundation.

The PFNteam100 programme has always supported talented young Polish athletes. Providing such support to Miko Marczyk and Szymon Gospodarczyk is a natural consequence of placing our trust in the best, whose successes contribute to the promotion of Poland abroad

— admits Dr Marcin Zarzecki, President of the PFN Management Board.

Supporting Polish sport and promoting Poland abroad are some of the key statutory goals of the Polish National Foundation, which is why we were proud to be involved in organising the participation of the outstanding driver Mikołaj Marczyk in the World Rally Championship in the WRC2 category. We are keeping our fingers crossed for our athletes, who have more than once provided Poles with a lot of positive emotions and impressions

— adds in turn the vice-president of the PFN, Michał Góras.

The rally will be based in Tartu, which is regarded to be the cultural capital of Estonia. The rally will feature 21 special stages covering a total distance of almost 300 kilometres. Friday is likely to be a key day for the rally, with the longest special stage of the rally - Peipsiääre - totalling 24 kilometres. The Estonian Rally is one of the youngest WRC rallies and at the same time the largest event of its kind held in the Baltic countries. The route, which runs mainly through forests, is full of gravel roads with lots of ridges, linking up with more technical sections. It is believed that the cars spend more time in the air than on the ground due to the large number of jumps, which is spectacular.

The tracks are very fast, there are big jumps, big slides and there are lots of spectators. So what more could you ask for? We’ve completed some good tests; we’ve worked out two different set-up packages. We are prepared for every circumstance so that nothing can surprise us here in Estonia

— says Szymon Gospodarczyk, pilot of the PFNTeam100 crew. The winners of the rally are to be known on Sunday.

Tłum. K.J.