Krzysztof Holowczyc wins Baja Poland

- Nasser Al-Attiyah extends his World Cup lead

Krzysztof Holowczyc is the ‘Baja Poland King’! He won his home event for the fifth and arguably last time as he announced his retirement from cross-country rallying, today. In his career, Holowczyc celebrated numerous successes with the MINI ALL4 Racing, such as finishing third in this year’s Dakar Rally, representing be best Dakar result of a Polish competitor in the car category. Two years ago, he secured the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup title – and also did so at the wheel of a MINI All4 Racing. 

“After 10 intense years of cross-country rallying I opted for retiring from the sport,” said Holowczyc. “In these years, I secured many good and several excellent results and also had to cope with some setbacks. I made it to the Dakar podium, I won the FIA World Cup and many rallies. 10 fantastic but also extremely tough years but they were worth the effort.  

Securing a podium in the Dakar was my goal from the very beginning and this year, my dream came true. Therefore, it’s the arguably best moment to go – you should retire at the top of your game. I am not going to completely retire from rallying but I plan to only make very sporadic appearances, in the future. I owe doing so my wife and my family who supported me throughout my 30 years in motor racing. I want to really thank Sven Quandt and X-raid, in this special moment. He always believed in my skills and my talent. Without the enormous support of the team I hadn’t been able to secure the Dakar podium. I will never forget that they gave me a helping hand in the most difficult moment of my career.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel finished second behind Holowcyz to extend their lead in the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup standings.. On Saturday, he lost several minutes due to a damaged tyre. “I focused on scoring World Cup points,” Al-Attiyah said later. Winning the World Cup is far more important for me than securing the win in the Baja Poland. In addition, Krzysztof was extremely fast, here.”

Meanwhile, Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski made a great debut, both on four wheels and as MINI ALL4 Racing driver. Together with his German co-driver Andreas Schulz, he secured the very fine seventh place. In four of the five special stages the young Pole made it to the top 10 and only in the prologue he had to settle for finishing 13th. “For me, everything was new, here,” admitted the young Pole. 

Right behind his compatriot, Adam Malysz and his French co-driver Xavier Panseri who also resides in Poland came eighth. They lost time due to a damaged tyre on Saturday and in the short Bajas, losing a couple of minutes makes a particularly big impact. “We made mistakes again and again, revealed the Pole, “But for me and Xavier, preparing for the Dakar represents the No-1 priority.”  

Meanwhile, Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar, had to cope with a major dose of bad luck: the two Dutchmen were hampered by several slow punctures but succeeded in coming 12th, nevertheless – three positions ahead of the German-Portuguese pairing Stephan Schott / Pedro Velosa who finished 15th.

“I’m very satisfied because of Krzysztof’s win in his last cross-country race,” said X-raid Team Manager Sven Quandt. “He delivered in great style. Just as it was the case in January when he secured third place in the Dakar. We jointly celebrated quite a number of successes and the entire team will miss him. Nasser’s performance also was impressive. He didn’t take any unnecessary risks and succeeded in extending his championship lead. Meanwhile, Kuba also drove a fine rally and learned a lot.”

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