Continental to Acquire 51 Percent of Matador Rubber Group

MATADORSPORT
Lechner plans to
win the Porsche Supercup,
with Rosina
(Finishting from p. 1)
and we are really pleased to have such a young
talented racer in our team”, said Walter
Lechner, the boss of the Lechner Racing team.
This year, Rosina is going to attend twelve races
within the Formula 1 events. According to
Lechner, his team plans longer cooperation
with the Slovak driver, as the first year in these
prestigious races will be very difficult. “Shtofi”,
as Štefan is called by the team, has very
strong team colleagues - Alessander Zampedri,
who won the Porsche Supercup in 2005, and
Damien Faulkner, a British champion in the
Porsche Carrera Cup. Because of his age, Rosina
is a great prospect for the future.”
Each test day in the Porsche Supercup is, at the
same time, a qualification round and there is
only one actual race afterwards, in which a driver
cannot afford to make even the slightest
mistake. Such a mistake could cost him good
placement as the racing cars reach the finish
within one second of the race winner. “Our drivers
have a camera fitted in the cars, so we
are able to see straightaway what they are doing
with the gear shift lever, steering wheel
and what mistakes they might potentially
make. Excuses, therefore, don’t even come
into consideration”, said Walter Lechner, a former
successful racing pilot and currently the
owner of the Walter Lechner professional
team, as he explained the standard practice
during a race. He considers himself to be very
lucky to be able to cooperate with such young
and talented driver as Štefan Rosina. “Within
three years, Rosina may win the Porsche Supercup”,
commented Lechner, revealing his visions
of the future. He added: “But I ask you all
to be patient. We will work straightforwardly
and honestly inform the public, because that’s
the best basis for good cooperation with the
media”.
“Shtofi” himself is already looking forward to
racing. “I’m aware that the oncoming season
will be very challenging, as the entire starting
field in this race reaches the finish within one
or two seconds of each other, and it will be
very difficult to get into the first half-second of
the first ten racing cars. However, I’m very
happy that I can cooperate with such a great
team and especially with such special people
and professionals as Walter Lechner and the
people in his team”, says Rosina. This Slovak
motorsport talent aims to get into the first half
of the starting field half-way through the season.
“It won’t be easy, but I’m going to do my
very best not to let down those who support
me”
The 10th anniversary of the SCG took place
from 16 to 18 March 2007 at Štrbské
Pleso in High Tatras. The programme of
the event was as usual focused on sport,
but in comparison to other years it was richer
in cultural experience. On Friday evening
there was an untraditional opening
of the event on a snowy slope of Interski
within the sport complex of Štrbské Pleso,
connected to fire show and moderated by
Sajfa from Fun radio. Our team had a difficult
task – to defend the last year title.
On Saturday morning the participants to
sport disciplines could enjoy typical winter
weather; a lot of snow and mild cloud
formation were promising in particular for
participants in demanding skiing disciplines.
Other members of our team were
fiercely fighting in hall sports to get every
point which was subsequently added to
the total score of individual company teams.
In the afternoon the weather changed
and it began to snow, the visibility
was significantly reduced. These conditions
made it much more difficult for our
team, in particular in cross-country skiing
and biathlon. But our men fought and
they achieved two first places in age categories
“Men - seniors” and “Men – juniors”!
Each worth 100 points.
8
MATADORLIFE
Slovak Company Games winter
2007 – Matador on 3rd place!
Combination of excellent driver and excellent
tyres means quite often a victory in automobile
races. One example is Václav Pech, a driver
of the Matador Motorsport, who at the
beginning of February won the Rally Šumava
with his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX and Matador
tyres. After the victory in Janner Rallye in
Austria he leads the list of the Czech Championship
with maximum number of points.
At the same time these two victories mean
also the Pech’s absolute victory of “Winter
cup” consisting of individual stages of mentioned
competitions.
“For us it is a nice beginning of the season.
I am satisfied with new vehicle Mitsubishi as
well as chose tyres, which perfectly worked
at the Šumava Rallye. We were at the top of
the list from Friday evening up to the finish,
but to achieve victory was not easy at all,”
says Václav Pech.
This year warm winter prepared very difficult
conditions that had to be solved by individual
teams during the competition. Instead of
snowy surfaces the drivers had to drive on
In the evening everybody impatiently waited
for the results to be announced at the
ceremonial announcement of the winner.
On the basis of estimated calculations of
gained points from individual disciplines
our team expected to be overall on 2nd or
3rd place. Unfortunately, the organizer of
the event changed the system of evaluation
and counting in comparison to past
years. In running disciplines we therefore
achieved in total only 100 points instead
of really achieved 200 points. The new
system of rating is that the score gained
in respective discipline is assigned only to
one competitor within the same company,
i.e. the one better result. This shifted
us to overall 3rd place from among 48
company teams and 645 participants from
the whole Slovakia present at the event.
In spite of that it is a nice success, because
last three years our company team was
regularly on the winner’s rostrum.
This time won the team of our joint venture
Continental Matador, s.r.o., and we
add our congratulations to this success.
The company Penta achieved the second
place. The participants enjoyed the rest of
sport and cultural Saturday evening on
the concert of the music band Desmod.
VÁCLAV PECH WON THE ŠUMAVA RALLY ON
MATADOR TYRES
asphalt with various surfaces. Some stages
were dry, others were wet, and then there
was so much mud that the track looked similarly
to the fine aggregate one. On several
parts there was snow and ice. The overall difficulty
is confirmed also by the fact that there
were a lot of accidents, the crews were
slowed down or disqualified from the competition.
Next start of Václav Pech will be at the competition
in Púchov; he will start there at the
Championship of the Central Europe under
the colours of the Czech representation.