Continental to Acquire 51 Percent of Matador Rubber Group

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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.
MATADORLIFE Final results of the Šumava Rally 2007 1. Pech-Uhel Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX 2h 05‘52“ 2. Gassner-Thannhäuser Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX +1‘12“ 3. Trojan-Řihák Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX +3‘12“ Jan Kopecký wins championship point after placing eighth in the Rally Norway Jan Kopecký and Filip Schovánek rounded off their three-week tour of Scandinavia with a fantastic result, with the Czech Rally Team Kopecký taking away a championship point from Norway after an excellent eighth place in the Rally Norway. Although Jan Kopecký and Filip Schovánek were twenty-seventh after the third stage, their concentrated, flawless performance in the next fifteen stages moved them up to a final eighth place, guaranteeing them a championship point. ‘Ending the three-week tour of Scandinavia with a championship point is absolutely amazing for us. In terms of their difficult stages, the Swedish and Norwegian rallies were not just challenging for the crew, but were also complicated because of the weather and the vehicle preparations. The engineers and mechanics of the Czech Rally Team Kopecký were excellent, as the Škoda Fabia WRC was fault-free throughout the two rallies. The vehicle preparations, especially considering the severe frost, were extremely difficult and they all deserve our admiration and thanks. Jan entered the final leg with the clear tactic of driving the car to the finish without any complications. Jan and Filip ended Saturday- ’s leg in tenth position, and they seemed to be too far behind the others to fight for a higher place. On the other hand, Jan had a relatively safe lead. The plummeting overnight temperatures froze the furrowed routes and there was a change in the conditions that had prevailed during the previous legs. Although it was not easy to drive the car in these conditions, Jan coped with all the stages on Sunday flawlessly and thanks to the problems of some of our rivals he was able to move into eighth place, earning him a championship point, at the end of the Rally Norway,’ said Josef Kopecký, the team manager, at the of the Rally Norway. Results of the Rally Norway: 1. HIRVONEN M. LEHTINEN J. 2. GRÖNHOLM M. RAUTIAINEN T. 3. SOLBERG H. MENKERUD C. 8. KOPECKÝ JAN SCHOVÁNEK FILIP ‘Of course I’m very happy we finished the Rally Norway, and winning a championship point is a fantastic achievement for the whole team. I would like to thank all our partners and especially Škoda Auto a.s. for enabling me to start these two challenging winter events. This year’s Rally Norway was exceptional, not only because it featured in the World Rally Championship for the first time, but also because of the challenging weather with the huge amounts of snow and the absolutely minimum number of service breaks. If you didn’t select the right vehicle settings in the service zone, then there was nothing for it but to stick with those settings for several stages. The Rally Norway was exceptionally difficult because of the length of some of the stages too,’ added Jan Kopecký ‘Eighth place in the Rally Norway is an unexpected achievement for us. The whole team did its best to get a quality result, but even so we hadn’t hoped to win a point in Norway because several really good Nordic drivers were taking part. After each stage, Jan and I cleared snow away from the engine area – especially the cooling system. We removed all four wheels from the vehicle and checked the condition and number of remaining studs on the tyres. We placed the two wheels with the most studs on the front axle and the other two on the back. I’m really pleased with the results from Sweden and Norway,’ added Filip Schovánek. Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:28:17.0 Ford Focus RS WRC 06 +0:09.5 Ford Focus RS WRC 06 +3:44.6 ŠKODA Fabia WRC +11:49.9 9 Miroslav Jandík prepares for the Championship of the Slovak Republic in Rally Miroslav Jandík, a contractual driver of the Matador Motorsport born in Zlín, will this year compete in particular on the Slovak roads. Together with his co-driver Radim Chrastecký they will go through the complete Championship of the Slovak Republic and also Barum Rally in Zlín. In comparison to the past season the drivers will drive on newer version of the racing vehicle Mitsubishi Lancer – its ninth evolution. At the moment the racing vehicle is under preparation in Zlín. “It is almost ready, but still we have to solve minor details. We hope that it will bring us luck and already now we are looking forward to the start at the Rally Matador Tatry in April. The new Mitsubishi should be faster than the older model EVO 7,” says driver Miroslav Jandík. Also Jandík, a driver of the Matador Motorsport, is getting ready for the season. “Every day I dedicate to sport at least one hour – in particular to cycling, in case of bad weather to spinning. Some days I prefer squash or fitness centre. I plan to go skiing, but so far it was not possible because of the snow conditions and construction of the EVO 9.” Who is Miroslav Jandík? He is a rally driver with the vehicle Mitsubishi Lancer. Last season he drove on the seventh evolution, this year he will drive on EVO 9. Last season he was driving in particular within the Czech Championship. He achieved the total 6th place. He has a bad luck, in three competitions he ended up on inglorious forth position. At the Rally Matador Tatry he was fifth. He was better in rallysprinte. He won third place at the Rally Vysočina, and second place at the Rally Agropa. CALENDAR OF RACES OF MIROSLAV JANDÍK IN 2007: 13. – 15.04. 38. Rally Matador Tatry FIA EPC, FIA CEZ MSR (double races) 02. – 03.06. Rally Bratislava MSR 06. – 08.07. Rally Rožňava MSR 24. – 26.08. Barum Rally Zlín 31.08. – 01.09. Rally Spiš MSR 26. – 28.10. 33. Rally Košice FIA CEZ, MSR
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Continental to Acquire 51 Percent of Matador Rubber Group

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