Copyright © Subaru Poland

The fourth round of Polish rally Championships took place in the former capital city of Poland, the city of Polish kings - Cracow and its suburbs. The rally started with the super special stage on Thursday, 12th July on one of the bridges on the Vistula river, the main and the biggest river in Poland. This spectacular show drew thousands of people to the centre of the city with the noise of rally cars. It was the third time the rally took place here although its name has changed since last year from rally Wawelski to Rally Subaru.

51 crews started in the prologue, but already two of them had to retire after this stage. Tomasz Kuchar, last year's winner of this stage won it this year too in Subaru Impreza and just one second after him was Sebastian Frycz also in Subaru Impreza prepared by Leszek Kuzaj's team. Our champion, Leszek Kuzaj who has not been in a good shape lately and was fourth on this stage.

The real fight started the next morning around forty kilometers south of Cracow in a lovely warm and sunny weather. Unfortunately the first stage was canceled and the next one was not very lucky to the Subaru drivers. Sebastian Frycz was fifth on this stage with the loss of 10 seconds to the winner. Leszek Kuzaj had a problem with the rear diff and went off road. As there were no spectators around at the beginning, he was not able to get out of the ditch and lost five minutes. Kuzaj won the fourth stage but the last sixth stage of the leg was cancelled.

Copyright © Subaru Poland

Two of the second day's stages were won by Leszek Kuzaj, but although rally leader Bryan Bouffier did not win any of the stages he managed to restore his leadership in the rally. Sebastian Frycz moved up to the third position but his very unfortunate puncture on the stage no 10 pushed him down to 13th in general classification. Sebastian's puncture was not a bad luck or unfortunate circumstances but someone's stupidity. There were specially prepared spikes found on the road on which Frycz damaged the tyres. The issue is now being investigated and the person who did this is being searched for. This sad and dangerous incident was the reason of the final results being on hold until late evening. Eventually Subaru driver, Kuchar finished in third and gained podium position.

The next round of Polish Rally Championships will be held 28-29 July in Kartuzy in the north of Poland and will be a gravel rally.