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 editions Zakopane was the base city. In 1960 the name "Rajd Polski" was used officially for the first time. Another big change came in 1975, when after previous year's organisational chaos, the decision was made to change the location once again. This time the choice was Lower Silesia. Wrocław became the rally base for quite a long time, with stages being held south of the city, in the Owl Mountains.

In 1998 and 99 the rally was held once again in Kraków due financial issues of the organiser club Automobilklub Dolnośląski. In the year 2000 the rally came back to lower Silesian stages in all of its glory, although it was moved more south, with Kłodzko being the host city. For five years it remained like that, until the last and perhaps the biggest change was made. In efforts to make Rally Poland a WRC round it was moved to the opposite end of the country. Not only was it moved 500 kms, it also became the gravel rally we know today. The change definitely worked in favour of the rally since it held a WRC event 6 times and has stayed in Mikołajki since then.

But what can we expect in SRM? As shown by the already published stage list the rally will come back to its golden era – Group A, B and 4 monsters dancing on the tarmac of the Lower Silesian mountains. Here is some footage of what we can expect for the first round of the season: