ŠKODA MOTORSPORT NEWSLETTER

The recent Wales Rally GB was a tough challenge for men and machine. Rain and unpredict-able road conditions were

complemented by long working hours – the crews left the service before sunrise and came back in the dark. To be successful, teamwork and a good preparation again was essential. With a WRC 2 Pro victory in Wales, our factory crew Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen secured the drivers’ titles of the category already two rallies before the  season final of the FIA World Rally Championship in Australia. Powering their  ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo to second place, Jan Kopecký and Jan Hloušek also brought home valuable points for the manufacturers’ championship of the WRC 2 Pro category, which is our next tar-get to win. This success was only possible because of the great commitment of everybody in our ŠKODA Motorsport family. Our work pays off nearly every weekend – our factory team and customers worldwide are driving from success to success with the rally cars “Made in Mladá Boleslav”.

By Michal Hrabánek, Director ŠKODA Motorsport

• October 2019

1 Editorial

2Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen win WRC 2 Pro Championship

3 Standings FIA World Rally Championship

4

Customer teams in the WRC 2 category of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC)

5Insider: The work of a co-driver, by Jonne Halttunen

6 Success of the ŠKODA FABIA R5 and ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo so far

7At a glance: ŠKODA successes in national championships

8 History: 25 years ago

CONTENT:T

Jan Kopecký and co-driver Jan Hloušek at the tire service, Wales Rally GB

• NEWS

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP/ WRC 2 PRO CATEGORY:Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen prematurely win for ŠKODA the WRC 2 Pro Championship 2019 for drivers* and co-drivers*

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (WRC)

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen hat ups and downs on their way winning the drivers’ titles of the WRC 2 Pro category, part of the FIA World

Rally Championship 2019 (WRC). Giving up was never an option for them at the opening round, the Monte-Carlo Ral-ly (24/01/–27/01/2019). After they dropped down to last position overall due to an accident during the first stage, they started a race to catch up and saved valuable champi-onship points for second place in the new for 2019 WRC 2 Pro category. At the second round in Sweden, they lost all chances of a category victory as they had to pay green-horns’ tax for two time-consuming visits to snow banks. Nevertheless, they again scored points for second place in WRC 2 Pro. On the island of Corsica during Rally France, they ended up with zero points after having left the road.The young Finns fought back after their mishaps and im-pressively won the category at Rally Chile. One round later, Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen gave the new ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo its maiden WRC win at Rally Portugal, where they also took the championship lead. After consequent vic-

tories at Rally Sardinia/Italy and Rally Finland, they finished third in Germany and Turkey. At Wales Rally GB, they had first match point for winning the title. And they used it by winning the category, thus also cementing WRC 2 Pro driv-ers’ titles already two rounds before the season final in Aus-tralia. Teammates Jan Kopecký and co-driver Jan Hloušek added valuable points counting for the manufacturers’ standings of the WRC 2 Pro Championship for ŠKODA by finishing in second category position.

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New WRC 2 Pro Champions: Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen

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Collected valuable points for the manufac-turers’ standings of the WRC 2 Pro Championship: Jan Kopecký and co-driver Jan Hloušek

STANDINGS: FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP(after 12 of 14 rounds)

WRC 2 Pro/Drivers

1. Kalle Rovanperä (FIN) ŠKODA 176 points

2. Gus Greensmith (GBR) Ford 125 points

3. Mads Østberg (NOR) Citroën 120 points

4. Jan Kopecký (CZE) ŠKODA 97 points

WRC 2/Drivers (private teams)

1. Pierre-Louis Loubet (FRA) ŠKODA 81 points

2. Benito Guerra (MEX) ŠKODA 75 points

3. Nikolay Gryazin (RUS) ŠKODA 73 points

3. Kajetan Kajetanowicz (POL) ŠKODA/VW 73 points

WRC 2 Pro/Manufacturers

1. ŠKODA 300 points

2. Ford 247 points

3. Citroën 120 points

Jan Kopecký/Jan Hloušek, ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo, Wales Rally GB

Kalle Roveperä/Jonne Halttunen, ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo, Wales Rally GB

ŠKODA customer teams are continuing to impress in WRC 2, the category of the FIA World

Rally Championship dedicated to priva-teers. Pierre-Louis Loubet and co-driver Vincent Landais finished second at Wales Rally GB, twelfth round of the FIA World Rally Championship. After a seventh cate-gory place, Benito Guerra and Daniel Cué are second of the interim classification. Among the final top ten of the WRC 2 category in Wales, five crews were com-peting with a ŠKODA FABIA R5 or the ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo. Out of twelve rounds of the WRC 2 championship so far, seven have been won by ŠKODA crews.

Finishing second of the European Ju-nior Championship classification at Rally Barum, Chris Ingram/Ross Whittock

missed the title by just 0.3 seconds – and conse-quently the price money of 100,000 Euros, which went to young Czech hope Filip Mareš and co-driver Jan Hloušek. Normally, the season would have been finished for Ingram and Whit-tock. That’s when Ingram’s mother stepped in and initiated the crowdfunding “Back the Brits” to cover the major budget shortfall. With the money raised from sponsors, family, friends, fans and supporters as well as the strong support of the Toksport Team, they could make it to the next ERC round on the island of Cyprus. With a smart drive, the Britons finished second overall, putting Ingram comfortably in the overall lead of the FIA European Rally Championship. With one more rally to go, the title will be decided in Hun-gary between Ingram, second placed ŠKODA stablemate Lukasz Habaj and Citroën crew Alex-ey Lukyanuk/ Alexey Arnautov.

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WRC 2 leaders Pierre-Louis Loubet and

Vincent Landais (ŠKODA FABIA

R5 evo)

Chris Ingram/Ross Whittock at Rally Cyprus

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2019:

FIA ERC CHAMPIONSHIP:

ŠKODA CUSTOMERS PIERRE-LOUIS LOUBET AND VINCENT LANDAIS TAKE LEAD OF THE WRC 2 CATEGORY

CROWDFUNDING “BACK THE BRITS”

WORLD RALLYING

• INSIDER

THE WORK OF A CO-DRIVERWE TALKED TO JONNE HALTTUNEN, SINCE 2017 THE CO-DRIVER OF KALLE ROVANPERÄJonne, what does it take to be a good co-driver?It’s definitely more than to read the pace notes properly, while the rally car is jumping and sliding around the special stages, so that the driver is exactly in-formed about the corners and passages to come. On top of that, the navigator has to deal with all the organisational requirements of a rally, so that the driv-er can concentrate on the driving alone. It is up to the co-driver, to make sure he or she has all the necessary documents at hand and the team is where it has to be at the right time.

Reading the pace notes, what are the most important aspects?First of all, you can’t get car sick – oth-erwise you can totally forget it to be a co-driver. During the recce before a ral-ly, we have maximum two passages of each special stage. On the first one, Kalle gives me his remarks which I write

down. During the second run I read the notes on a modest speed – we have to respect a speed limit all the time – and we make corrections if necessary. As additional preparation, we regularly check the notes against inboard videos in our hotel room. During the rally, I have to read the pace notes with the right timing. However, with a limited chance to look out of the windscreen, you mostly have to rely on your sense of rhythm to read your pace notes at the right speed. Read too slow, and the driver will get his information too late, possibly with not enough time to react. Read too fast, and he may get confused with the corners. In both cases, you may end up off the track.

What about your own driving skills, are you able to drive a rally car?When Kalle was not yet 18 years old and not allowed to drive on public roads in some countries, it happened

that his co-driver/I had to drive the car during road sections. Even nowadays, I sometimes drive our ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo between the special stages to give Kalle some additional time to re-lax.

How important is the chemistry between driver and co-driver?As a crew, you depend on each other not only in terms of the rally results, but basically also with your life. You have to trust and understand each other per-fectly, which is rarely possible, if you don’t go along well. During a full season in the FIA World Rally Championship, driver and co-driver spend more time together than with their respective pri-vate partners. Kalle and I have on top of that a lot of fun doing rallying together. Even if things are not going well for a moment, we are able to cheer up each other. In order to be successful, you need to stay positive.

INTERVIEW & TECHNOLOGY

Co-driver Jonne Halttunen with some

of his pace notes

SUCCESS OF THE ŠKODA FABIA R5 SO FAR

AT A GLANCE: ŠKODA CREWS SUCCESSFUL IN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Austria: Julian Wagner and co-driver Pirmin

Winklhofer continue to impress in the Austrian Rally Championship. After two season victories and four second places, they are currently second in the national championship. With one more round to go they are still in the title race.

Belgium: The East Belgian Rally (27/9/ – 28/9/2019),

eighth round of the national champi-onship, saw an impressive demon-stration of ŠKODA crews occupying the top six overall positions. Adrian Fernémont/Samuel Maillen, Ghislain de Mevius/Johan Jallet and Sébastien Bedoret/Thomas Walbecq made it a pure ŠKODA podium. Seven ŠKODA crews finished among the top ten.

Finland: Double victory for ŠKODA at the Mad-Croc

SM Ralli Salo-Turku (27/9 – 28/9/2019), seventh round of the Finnish Rally Championship: Teemu Asunmaa/Jani Salo won ahead of

Juha Salo/Topi Luhtinen and became national Champions.

Germany: Driving a ŠKODA FABIA R5 from

importer ŠKODA Auto Deutschland, Fabian Kreim and co-driver Tobias Braun won the ADMV Rallye Erzge-birge (4/10/– 5/10/2019), sixth round of the German Rally Championship.

Going into the final round, the 3-Städte-Rallye, Kreim/Braun are clearly leading the championship.

Serbia: At the Serbia Rally (27/9/– 29/9/2019),

ŠKODA crews celebrated a double victory for the Czech brand. Dušan Borković/Igor Marković (SRB/SRB) won ahead of János Puskádi/Barn-abás Gódor (HUN/HUN).

Spain: ŠKODA privateers Xevi Pons/Rodrigo Sanjuan

de Eusebio lead the Spanish gravel championship with three more rounds to go.

Sweden: Driving a ŠKODA FABIA R5, Fredrik Åhlin and

Joakim Sjöberg won the last round of the championship, Rally Blekinge (27/9/ – 28/9/2019). Patrik Flodin/Göran Bergsten, also campaigning a ŠKODA, were crowned new Swedish Rally Champions already one event before.

Julian Wagner and Pirmin Winklhofer at Niederösterreich Rallye

Fabian Kreim and co-driver Tobias Braun at Rallye Erzgebirge

The ŠKODA FAVORIT 136L was unbeatable in its class at the RAC Rally 1994, then Great Britain’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Pavel

Sibera/Petr Gross (CZE/CZE) won ahead of their teammates Emil Triner/Jiří Klíma (CZE/CZE) and the British crew Timo-thy Johnson/Roger Burkill. The ŠKODA FAVORIT 136L paved not only the way into a modern and successful future of ŠKODA Auto, which in 1991 became part of the Volkswa-gen Group. The rally version of the capable car also con-quered the world title for cars with two wheel drive and en-gines with a displacement up to 2.0 litres. From 1991 to 1994, Pavel Sibera alone won four times in a row his class at the Monte-Carlo Rally.

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• HISTORY

ŠKODA MOTORSPORT: Further information:Zbyněk Straškraba, Communications MotorsportP +420 605 293 168zbynek.straskraba@skoda-auto.czhttp://skoda-motorsport.com

25 YEARS AGOPAVEL SIBERA, EMIL TRINER AND TIMOTHY JOHNSON TOOK THREE ŠKODA FAVORIT 136L TO TOP THREE OF THE CLASS AT RAC RALLY 1994