Cais plans ERC confidence Czech in Poland

The 23-year-old from Czech Republic, who came within a stage of winning an ERC event outright in 2021, has endured a challenging start to the 2023 season, his first with Škoda power.

“It will be difficult and challenging, especially with me not finishing so well [in Portugal last weekend],” said the former downhill mountain bike racer. “I need to stay calm, I need to stay focused and do the best job possible to build the confidence back. That will be point number one, then I can focus more on where I am and where I want to be.

“Because I did a mistake in Croatia and [in Portugal] you are starting to doubt yourself, you are feeling when the car slides about more you are scared and don’t want to crash the car again. But we have three upcoming races on gravel and there is space to improve and find a good rhythm.”

Cais made his one and only Rally Poland start in 2019, finishing sixth in Junior ERC during the early stages of his career behind the wheel.

“It’s beautiful nature, the people in Poland are just crazy about rally and I’m really looking forward to doing another ERC event,” said Cais, who will be co-driven on ORLEN 79th Rally Poland by Igor Bacigál from Slovakia. “The competitors in ERC are the top spec and it’s not easy to do the best times there. It’s, for sure, a challenge but that’s what rallying is about and I’m happy for that. You need to go flat out on every stage in the ERC and I’m very grateful to all the sponsors and partners who let me do this.”