The X-Raid Mini team’s Polish duo of Krzysztof Holowczyc and Łukasz Kurzeja dominated the 2025 Columna Baja Poland from start-to-finish to record a comfortable 15min 46.6sec victory at the seventh round of the 2025 FIA European Baja Cup.

Holowczyc said: “It was not such a long rally and if you see two short stages on the final day, it looks like nothing. But I am wet through and it was a tough event. Always good organisation for this rally. This is like my home rally. Now I have won it 10 times. I am so happy. It is a pleasure to push 100%. The car was working well. It has great potential and it will have a good chance for the Dakar. The two long stages on Saturday decided the gap and the win for me.”

Holowczyc may have earned a record 10th success at his local event in Szczecin but ‘Holec’ was not registered for the FIA European Baja Cup in his Mini JCW Rally 3.0i.

That meant maximum points in the Baja Cup and the Ultimate category went to the second-placed Toyota Hilux crew of Wlodzimierz Grajek and Michal Goleniewski. The result means they head to the final two rounds of the series in Portugal locked in a fight with the Polish duo of Magdalena Zając and Czekan Błażej and the Lithuanian pairing of Benediktas Vanagas and Aisvydas Paliukenas for Ultimate category glory. Grajek and Goleniewski are also firmly in contention for a podium finish in the overall FIA European Baja Cup.

Vanagas and Paliukenas guided their Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics Hilux to fourth overall behind the third-placed X-raid Mini of Michal Maluszyński and Julita Maluszyńska. The Lithuanians picked up points for second place in the FIA European Baja Cup. Zając and Błażej were classified in 15th overall in their Proxcars TME Rally Team Toyota Hilux but also collected valuable championship points for finishing sixth of the registered crews.

Vanagas said: “We were trying to push maximum. P4 overall and P2 European Cup and we managed to get an extra five points for the European Cup today.”

A relatively troublefree run for the Polish pairing of Bartlomiej Wajzer and Ernest Górecki netted the Land Cruiser KDJ 155 crew another maximum points’ haul in the Stock category for series production cross-country machines.

The duo are already category champions - after taking six straight Stock victories in Spain, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and Hungary – and finishing seventh of the registered contenders in Poland also confirmed the overall Drivers’ and Navigators’ titles in the FIA European Baja Cup with two rounds to spare.

Wajzer said: “The long stage was a bit difficult and there was a small navigational error on the route on Sunday. We drove 150 metres too fast to the right and had to turn back. Everything ended well and we were able to win the European Cup in the general classification.”

Poland’s Adam Kuś and his Ukrainian navigator Dmytro Tsyro finished fifth overall and topped the standings in the Challenger category in their Taurus T3 Max but were not registered for the FIA European Baja Cup.

With the championship-leading Spaniard Miguel Angel Valero losing a lot of time on the opening day and finishing in 19th place (eighth FIA), that opened the door for the Hungarian duo of Lőrinc Mészáros and Albert Horn to capitalise in their 11th-placed M1 Motorsport G Rally Team OT3 to set up a showdown with the Spaniard over the final two rounds.

Maximum FIA European Baja Cup points in the SSV section went to the ninth-placed all-Hungarian crew of Balázs and Gabriella Molnár in their M1 Motorsport Can-Am Maverick R.

With series leader Sean Haran not present in Poland and his closest Portuguese challenger Afonso Oliveira coming home second in the category and 14th overall in a Santag Racing Polaris RXR Pro R Sport, the trio will fight it out for overall honours in Portugal, along with Turkish driver Yagiz Birinci. Birinci was sidelined after a multiple roll on the opening stage.

Oliveira said: “We got to the end without breaking anything and we added to the points we needed for the European Baja Cup. Now we will fight for the championship at home.”

This year’s Baja Poland attracted 23 starters with 11 teams running in the Ultimate category, four in Challenger, seven in SSV and a single vehicle entered in the Stock section for series-production cross-country machines. Of those, nine were registered for points in the FIA European Baja Cup.

Action was centred around a 8.87km Prologue stage, near Szczecin, an opening leg that featured 299.50km timed against the clock at the Drawsko Pomorskie military proving grounds and a final leg of 52.16km for a competitive distance of 351.66km in a total route of 611.15km.

Day one was further split into four shorter stages of 75.74km, 74.01km, 75.74km and 74.01km by a pair of neutralisation sections. Likewise, day two saw two passes through stages of 15.14km and 10.94km between Slawozsewo and Wolczkowo.

Holowczyc topped the times on the Prologue with a run of 7min 40.3sec and that was 10.1 seconds quicker than his nearest rival Maluszyński. Kús was the quickest of the Challenger entrants in third. The Prologue winner got the better of Maluszyński on the opening wet and slippery stage and carved out a lead of in excess of six minutes over his X-Raid team-mate.

Holowczyc’s co-driver Lukasz Kurzeja said: “It was a long and beautiful stage in the military area and very fast. We pushed. We had a small problem with the fuel pump but we used the spare one and it was okay. Navigation, no problem because, for many years, the organisers use the big machine to do the track and you drive only on the track.”

Martin Kaczmarski was third in the sole Overdrive Toyota and Grajek was the quickest of the registered FIA European Baja Cup contenders in fourth. Mészáros and Molnar led the registered drivers in the Challenger and SSV categories. Miroslav Zapletal, FIA Challenger category leader Miguel Angel Valero and Birinci were not able to complete the stage.

Despite an ‘off’ on a tight, sandy corner when he hit a small tree, another fastest time on the second pass gave Holowczyc a comfortable overnight lead in changeable weather conditions on a heavily rutted track.

Maluszyński suffered a broken left-rear driveshaft and finished the stage in front-wheel drive while Vanagas, who had recovered well from a damaged shock absorber and a puncture on stage one, suffered a gearbox issue at the end of the stage.

Kaczmarski had climbed to second overnight but the Pole did not start the final day. Holowczyc topped the times on the opener from Barthlomiej Kotwica (Taurus) and Maluszyński and was fastest again ahead of Vanagas on the final pass through the short stage to record a 10th victory at Baja Poland.

The penultimate eighth round of the FIA European Baja Cup will be Portugal’s Baja TT Sharish Reguengos/Mourão on September 12th-14th.

Columna Medica Baja Poland – final result:

1. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Łukasz Kurzeja (POL) X-raid Mini JCW Rally 3.0i                     3hr 44min 00.1sec

2. Wlodzimierz Grajek (POL)/Michal Goleniewski (POL) Toyota Hilux                                    3hr 59min 47.7sec+

3. Michal Maluszyński (POL)/Julita Maluszyńska (POL) X-raid Mini JCW Rally 3.0i               4hr 00min 48.9sec 

4. Benediktas Vanagas (LTU)/Aisvydas Paliukenas (LTU) Toyota Hilux                                                     4hr 01min 06.8sec+

5. Adam Kuś (POL)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) Taurus T3 Max                                                            4hr 03min 45.4sec

6. Barthlomiej Kotwica (POL)/Arkadiusz Jęrdzejewskim (POL) Taurus T3 Max                     4hr 09min 24.1sec

7. Tomasz Baranovski (POL)/Konrad Dudziński (POL) Toyota Hilux                                         4hr 21min 56.9sec 

8. Balázs Molnár (HUN)/Gabriella Molnár (HUN) Can-Am Maverick R                                                     4hr 22min 51.2sec+

9. Arunas Lekavicius (LTU)/Andrius Liskus (LTU) Can-Am Maverick R                                     4hr 25min 16.5sec

10. Mindaugas Sidabras (LTU)/Arūnas Gelažninkas (LTU) Can-Am Maverick R                     4hr 25min 52.1sec

11. Lőrinc Mészáros (HUN)/Albert Horn (HUN) G Rally Team OT3                                          4hr 26min 44.7sec+

12. Maciej Oleksowicz (POL)/Marcin Sienkiewicz (POL) Can-Am Maverick R                        4hr 28min 35.3sec

13. Juraj Varga (SVK)/Radovan Schneider (SVK) Polaris RXR Pro R Premium                        4hr 36min 58.1sec

14. Afonso Oliveira (POR)/Fábio Belo (POR) Polaris RXR Pro R Sport                                      4hr 47min 35.8sec+

15. Magdalena Zając (POL)/Czekan Błażej (POL) Toyota Hilux                                                  5hr 02min 28.6sec+                 

16. Michiel Becx (NED)/Wouter de Graaff (NED) Century CR7                                                 5hr 32min 43.0sec

17. Roger Grouwels (NED)/Rudolf Meijer (NED) Century CR7                                                  5hr 36min 50.6sec

18. Barthlomiej Wajzer (POL)/Ernest Górecki (POL) Land Cruiser KDJ 155                            5hr 56min 49.1sec+

19. Miguel Angel Valero (ESP)/Carlos Moreno (ESP) VM Competicion T34                           11hr 21min 50.6sec+

Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SVK) Ford F-150 Evo                                                                      DNF

Janus Kasteren (NED)/Marcel Snijders (NED) Century CR7                                                       DNF

Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Hugo Magalhães (POR) Toyota Hilux Overdrive                            DNF                           

Yagiz Birinci (TUR)/Evangelos Sotirchos (GRE) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR                                    DNF+

+denotes registered for FIA European Baja Cup