A story about a trip to Olsztyn and a visit to the rally teams based there.
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The first significant contact of the Rally Week with the Polish, or more specifically, the Olsztyn rally community occurred in the early 2020s. After the Rally Žemaitija, an interview was conducted with Krzystof Bubik, who delivered an impressive performance, and later with Adrian Sadowski, whom we happened to meet just a few hundred metres from the final SS start of the Rally Rokiškis. Half-axle was the reason. A very long story could be told about how the relationship developed further, but that is not the focus this time. The main point is that racers from Olsztyn have participated in almost every LARČ rally for the past five or more years – sometimes one crew, sometimes another. This is hardly surprising, as Olsztyn is considered the Polish gravel rally capital, and you are probably aware of the situation with gravel rallies there. Therefore, it is not unexpected that a short trip to Lithuania to test themselves on our gravel roads has become a regular occurrence. Rally Week co-author Ignas Augustonis had a thought while travelling around Poland this summer: if Poles are constantly visiting us, perhaps it is time for us to visit them and discover how they live and what their rally scene is like. We see them regularly in Lithuania, but we do not really know them. Incidentally, the current ERC3 and Fiesta Rally Trophy champion Tymek Abramowski even grew up on our gravel roads. When the rally schedule eased a little, we found a few days during which we managed to accomplish a great deal. While you are reading this account of the trip, a film about the journey, featuring five very interesting interviews, is already being prepared in the editing room.
The first stop awaited us on the route from Mikolajki, the former home of WRC Rally Poland, to Olsztyn. Next to the proudly trotting horses, whose prices rival those of R5/Rally2 cars, stood a service truck that had recently arrived from Finland. BSR Racing Solutions is preparing for next year, so additional service equipment is essential when renting cars. The team’s garage is indeed quite large – BSR Racing Solutions is based in the premises of a company run by Krzysztof Bubik’s business partner, Mariusz Sobotka.
A beautiful line of cars, both fully prepared and still in preparation, is lined up. The most eye-catching is the almost new Lancia Ypsilon HF Rally4, with which Irmantas Buivydas won the Elektrėnai and Aukštaitija rallies.
The team is working intensively on the rental and preparation of rally cars, so racer Krzystof Bubik rarely gets behind the wheel himself. He sold his long-owned Škoda Fabia R5, which he drove in Lazdijai this year and finished 10th in the ERC Rally Poland, to the Estonians and bought a newer Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo, which will be driven by Polish rally legend Leszek Kuzaj in the upcoming Rajd Barborka. In addition to these cars, the team has several Peugeot 208 R2s and a BMW E46, which will also return to the stages sooner or later.
The team is also awaiting the second Lancia Ypsilon HF Rally4 car, so they will definitely have something to offer the market. Feel free to contact Krzystof – he will be happy to assist with car rental matters and is open to price negotiations. If time and circumstances permit, we may see him again in Lithuania.
As evening approached and the rain began, we saw a somewhat familiar sight as we drove through the streets of Olsztyn. We must thank Giedrius Notkus for this, who, when purchasing his Škoda Fabia R5 from Hołowczyc Racing, also produced an excellent video. As many years have passed since that event, some things have changed. The premises now operate under the K-Rally Team banner, although the processes have essentially remained the same.
Team founder Paweł Korek worked with Krzysztof Hołowczyc for 20 years, including 15 participations in the Dakar Rally. Excellent management skills and many years of teamwork enabled the team to achieve outstanding results even after parting ways with K. Hołowczyc. Although we were unable to meet Korek himself, Patryk Omilianowicz welcomed us in the building with a rich history of motor sport service.
It truly feels as though the team has a clear purpose. The entire courtyard is filled with rally and rally raid cars, either ready or being prepared; a few old Subarus evoke memories of their glory days, and a Lancia 037 silhouette lurks in the shed. Inside, there are many photos and trophies, and although space is limited, there is room for both a garage and a shock absorber service room, where a Lithuanian LABA7 shock absorber test stand can be found. Everything necessary is available not only to service the cars, but also to build them. If the Dacia Duster rally raid cars were the creation of the past, then the Toyota GR Yaris cars are purely the “children” of the K-Rally team. One of them was waiting for us in our garage.
This is the first Toyota GR Yaris they have produced, with which Teemu Asunmaa made his debut in 2023 and secured third place in the Visaginas Rally. Later, the same Yaris was involved in a serious incident during the 2023 Rally Utena, but it was repaired and went on to complete a total of 16 rallies. On gravel, the Finnish champion oversaw its development, while on asphalt, Kacper Wróblewski was responsible. The K-Rally Team even managed to obtain national homologation for this car and hopes that a Toyota GR Yaris Cup will be established in Poland in the future. There is potential for this – the K-Rally Team alone has already produced five cars, and other teams are also involved in their production. As Patryk said, there is finally something new on the market from which a 4WD rally car can be built. Over the past two years, they have already refined this car to a very high standard – the results speak for themselves.
Next to the garage creations – though even it feels wrong to call them that – there are also FIA cars. While we spoke with Patryk for a good three hours about cars, the Polish and Lithuanian rally scenes, technical matters, and history, the K-Rally Team members were loading parts into the new Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo chassis, which belongs to Wojciech Musiał, which visits Lithuania from time to time. In the corner of the garage, a BMW E46 stands quietly, prepared for circuit racing, a discipline the K-Rally Team has also become somewhat involved in. Of course, we could not overlook the Dacia Duster rally raid cars, with which the team has been working very actively; these cars also have their own cup in Poland. In other words, there are so many projects, tasks, and activities that it would be difficult to fit everything into another such garage. However, this is a good sign – busy hands are always better than idle ones.
The third stop on this journey was just north of Olsztyn, where a narrow asphalt road leads to large hangars. Here, familiar names and service trucks are already visible. Next to them are many Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution cars of various generations and conditions, their number increasing rapidly as you enter the premises.
However, those cars are probably awaiting quieter rides in the future, as they are already becoming classics, which are also very expensive to maintain. Pawel Wazny tried to race in his childhood dream cars, but the Mitsubishi Lancer unfortunately had, and still has, many reliability problems. In recent years, we have seen this Pole in Lithuania with the incomparably more reliable Ford Fiesta Rally3 cars.
This season, Pawel joined forces with the aforementioned Adrian Sadowski, thanks to whom we were able to visit everyone. Both of Pawel’s Ford Fiesta Rally3 cars are now for sale, as the team and crew are awaiting much more exciting news. We will learn more next season, as Pawel, like many other Poles from Olsztyn, is passionate about Lithuanian special stages and rallies. They feel very comfortable in Lithuania, and this is a great achievement for all involved. In fact, more than half of all rallies that Pawel has driven have taken place in Lithuania, and Adrian has participated in 25 competitions since 2020. Adrian himself says that this number, although impressive, is still small, as at least 100 should be reached.
In addition to rallying, the team has another enjoyable activity. Ecoplantsales Rally Team is the official representative of Lifelive Motorsport in Poland, selling XC Cross Car buggies. As you may know, Thierry Neuville is the founder of Lifelive Motorsport. This activity is very convenient for the team, as there is an autocross track just a few hundred metres from their premises, where buggies race or drivers test their rally cars almost every weekend. Unfortunately, two days of heavy rain ruined the plans to see the XC Cross Car buggies in action, as the entire track was unusable. The visit to Pawel and Adrian had an additional purpose: to present them with the LARC3 second-place trophy. So, stay tuned for news from this crew 🙂
The trip concluded with a brief visit to… a concrete factory. As it was a Saturday, the place was rather quiet, and only one young man enthusiastically described the newly established team premises: “Look, here will be the main garage, here the engine compartment, here the shock absorbers will be serviced, here this, here that – it will be a large and modern rally base.” The last time we saw Tymek was in the summer or autumn of 2024, so a year had already passed, and it was remarkable to see how much he had grown and matured. Previously, it was difficult to hear him speak any English, but now he speaks it effortlessly.
Tymek Abramowski actually grew up on Lithuanian gravel roads. Who would have thought that a young man who drove a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX course car and rolled it would become a European ERC3 champion and a Fiesta Rally Trophy winner within a few years? When speaking with Tymek, two cars kept us company in the garage. One was a BMW E46, which is being built by Tymek’s brother, Wiktor.
They both raced from childhood, but Wiktor realised that a professional racing career was not for him. Meanwhile, his younger brother Tymek is making significant progress towards something big. The second car accompanying us was a Ford Fiesta Rally3. This is the same car that won the LARČ3 title in 2024, now equipped with the Evo upgrade package. The team had a total of three Fiesta Rally3 cars, but kept only this one – the championship-winning car, in which the author of this text drove past Bagdoniškis stage in Lithuania three years ago. Tymek remembers his time in Lithuania very well and values the experience he gained there, which helped him become extremely fast in the European Rally Championship.
More than an hour of work has gone into each post. So if you find the unique content of Rally Week useful or meaningful, please support the existence of this project 🙂
