Poles apart

Arguably Poland’s best known Rallycross drivers of the last couple of years – certainly until the arrival of one Mr. Skorupski – Lukasz Zoll and Marcin Wicik will both drive in the Supercar class of their home round in the European Rallycross Championship this weekend. The pair, however, have greatly different ambitions and plans for the future; Wicik hoping to sell his Fiesta and concentrate on his drifting activities, while Zoll wants to develop the Subaru Impreza Supercar he acquired earlier this year and build a future in the class.

After a couple seasons with a BMW 1 in the TouringCar class, Zoll switched to the Subaru earlier this year but has had a mixed time of things so far. “It’s just a Group N rally car, that’s all,” he said, “This car has 320bhp, it’s not fast enough. If it rains here then maybe I could do something, but it’s not going to rain this weekend, so really all I can do is drive and hope for something. I’ve been to four events but in the first the engine was not good and in the last one the gearbox broke after one lap so I have not had much experience of this car yet. I know it’s not fast enough and in the winter we want to develop it and try to do more events next year. Now I have been in the Supercar class there is no way back – I love it!”

While Zoll is infatuated with Rallycross and his Supercar, Wicik has found new mistress. “I sold the other two Rallycross cars that I had and I want to sell the Fiesta Supercar then my time in Rallycross is over, at least for now,” he said. “I have been doing some drifting events and right now that is more fun for me and my family. I can also get good sponsorship to do drifting because in Poland it is very popular at the moment.”

Alongside his Fiesta Supercar in the paddock this weekend, Wicik has his ‘Drift Taxi’. At first glance this appears to be no more than lowered Transit van on alloy wheels. “This is my drift car!” says Wicik, “It’s got a live axle and four-link kit like an old Escort and in the front we have a BMW M5 engine with nearly 500bhp, it’s fast and it’s fun. Actually it started as a joke in the team, we thought perhaps we might make a Transit into a Rallycross car. I had the body and we started it as an after work project, then I got interested in drifting and we decided to do build the Transit for that. The first time we went testing we made a short film and put it on YouTube, I can’t believe how many hits it has had and how many calls and mails I get because it’s a crazy Polish guy in a Transit van. We made a better video and that has more than 120,000 hits, it’s mad! Maybe I’m not the fastest or the winner, but everyone remembers the Transit van,” said Wicik.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.