Continental to Acquire 51 Percent of Matador Rubber Group

Jureňa began the ME series with victory
Peter Jureňa, driver of the Matador Motorsport,
won in the first competition within
13 episodes of the European Championship
in the up-hill racing in Italy (15.4.) and
confirmed his role of the favourite. “I am
very satisfied with the result, the new car
functions very good. Although I did not
know the track well, I was able to win,”
says Jureňa in connection to the result..
The Slovak representative and the Slovak
Champion in this discipline was successful already
during the Saturday competition, when
Štefan Rosina, the Slovak motor sport
representative, experienced everything
as a novice of extremely
strong starting field at the opening of
the Porsche Mobil Supercup 2007 –
happiness because of the excellent
result in the first race on April 14th,
2007 as well as disappointment because
of unfinished first round in the
second race on Sunday.
The fourteenth place of Štefan Rosina in
the Friday classification confirmed words
of the head of the team Walter Lechner
from couple of days ago at the press
conference in Bratislava that our representative
may think of an excellent placing
in the near future. From the starting
field with 29 members more than 15 names
are well-known in motor sport and
other ten drivers have already started
for several times in this prestigious,
world’s fastest competition. In extremely
high temperatures on a 5.4 km long
BIC – Bahrain International Circuit, the
first 15 drivers “fit” into one second.
Štefan fulfilled the objective he wanted
to achieve at the Saturday race – to pre-
he won in both trainings. On Sunday rainy races
Jureňa confirmed his sovereignty in the
first race, when he came to the finish as a
winner with his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX. Because
of the bad weather the organizer was
forced to cancel the second race. “Organizers
of the competition failed, the competition
vent any mistakes at the start and to
keep up with others. Even though he
lost two positions after the first round,
he quickly overtook two slower drivers
and started to pursue Van de Berg and
Langhorn from America for several
rounds. “They were slower, he should
overtake them earlier - afterwards he
did not have much time for experienced
Bleekemolen driving on the 11th place.
He will have a hard school here, compliments
do not educate,” said Walter
Lechner, the head of the team, in connection
to Rosina’s performance. However,
he gained the first four points thanks
to excellent 12th place in the opening
race, thus as the youngest one in the
team contributing to an excellent Saturday
of Walter Lechner – on the rostrum
there were two drivers of this team. The
winner of the Saturday race was Damien
Faulkner from Ireland with convincing
lapse of time before Uwe Alzen; the
third was Alessandro Zampredi, other
Rosina’s team colleague.
There was a thread of a sandstorm on
Sunday, but the weather calmed down
before start; however, the track was full
14
MATADORLIFE
was full of problems - from parking to slow
removal of accidents. This is the reason why
competitors weren’t able to absolve the second
race,” concludes the Slovak representative.
Štefan Rosina gained four points in his first race
at the Porsche Supercup 2007
Order in the group N:
1. Peter Jureňa (SVK) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 3.50.01
2. Miroslav Jakeš (CZ) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 3.51.58
3. Rudi Chiavarolli (ITA) BMW M3 3.52.00
of sand in spite of all efforts of the organizers.
Damien Faulkner started from
pole position, Štefan Rosina was again
on 14th position in the middle of the
field - the position was calculated from
the second best times from Friday classification.
Alzen started the best and
Štefan Rosina had the same bad luck as
another novice - Czech driver Jiří Janák
on Saturday. In the middle of the first
round, American Langhorne literally
spun him and in subsequent collision
another driver destroyed his front wheel
and the hope was over. Excellent Alzen
won the race before Westbrook; Faulkner
from the Lechner Racing team ended
up on the third place.
Thus the favourites confirmed their ambitions
- Uwe Alzen (GER), winner of the
65 kilometre long competition of the
last year, started excellently the races in
Bahrain as well as Richard Westbrook
(GBR), the last year winner of the whole
series of the Porsche Supercup and the
second on Bahrain circuit in the previous
year. Damien Faulkner, British champion
in the Porsche Carrera Cup, also fulfilled
expectations. On the start there were in
total twenty nine drivers representing
fifteen teams.
“I am one of them, even though perhaps
the youngest one and least experienced,
but I am satisfied with the twelfth place.
Now I know what to do to achieve better
results, I already had better times by
five to six places on Saturday; there is no
place for hesitation in this competition.
In such balanced field every bad handling,
everything is visible. It requires
patience and to have a good luck. I completed
many starts like this, the American
hanged on me and another punch
destroyed the wheel – this happens in
this kind of sport. I already look forward
to Barcelona, I have not drive there yet
and therefore it will be much more interesting,”
says Štefan Rosina in connection
to his opening performance in
the Porsche Mobil Supercup in Bahrain.