Rajd Polski - Quick History Lesson, by Wiktor Smoliński
I think it's safe to say all rally fans know Rajd Polski – or Rally Poland in English – pretty well, both from WRC and ERC: fast gravel roads, with big jumps leading through the fields of Mazuria. But that's just in recent years. The world's second oldest rally has a rich history and has visited many places before. The first edition was held in 1921, starting in Warsaw. With six competitors at the start, the rally turned out to be a success and was continued in the next years, with the route getting longer. In 1939, Grand Prix International Rally as it was called back then was 4358 kilometres long! The Second World War obviously delayed the next editions, but the rally came back in 1947. Unfortunately, it did not earn the sympathy of communist officials back then and it was halted after the 1948 edition. The big return happened six years later, and in 1959 the organization was given to Automobilklub Krakowski. Because of that the event was moved to Kraków but during some ed...