ŠKODA MOTORSPORT NEWSLETTER

At the 47th Rally Bohe-mia, the Czech Rally Cham-pionship finally started after the corona break.

We are all happy, that the champion-ship could finally resume, actually close to the home of ŠKODA AUTO and ŠKODA Motorsport. In our mo-torsport premises, we are now oper-ating at full swing again. The 353rd Rally FABIA was delivered to a  cus-

tomer as the first car after the COVID-19 restrictions had fallen at last. The impressive field of Rally Bohemia saw 13 crews competing with ŠKO-DA FABIA Rally2 and ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo. Among the number of 22 entries in Rally2 category, there were not only crews from Czech Republic, but as well from Finland, Germany and Austria. During the third July

weekend, Rally di Roma Capitale in It-aly will mark the re-start of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC). The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) will resume with the Rally Es-tonia at the beginning of September. In this and our following newsletters, we keep you updated about the suc-cess and the progress of our custom-ers on  international and national championships.

• July 2020

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1 Editorial from Michal Hrabánek

2 Handover of 353rd Rally FABIA/Mogul Test Rally Sosnová

3 Albert von Thurn und Taxis visited ŠKODA Motorsport/Rally Bohemia

4 Recent Rally Results/Calendar of  the FIA European Rally Championship

5 Preview ERC round Rally Roma di Capitale/Updated Calendar of the FIA

6 History – 16 years ago/Revised calendar of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) 2020

CONTENT:

ŠKODA MOTORSPORT –CUSTOMER ACTIVITIES ARE RESUMING WORLDWIDEBy Michal Hrabánek, Director of ŠKODA Motorsport

Michal Hrabánek, Director of ŠKODA Motorsport (left) and Team Manager Pavel Hortek

• NEWS HANDOVER OF 353RD RALLY FABIA

MOGUL TEST-RALLY SOSNOVÁ

After months of restric-tions due to the corona cri-sis, finally the delivery of

cars resumed at ŠKODA Motor-sport’s headquarter in Mladá Boleslav. Pavel Paickr, Executive Di-rector of rally team Entry Engineer-ing, received the 353rd Rally FABIA, which will be used in the future by European Junior Rally Champion (ERC1) Filip Mareš. In the meantime, already three more Rally FABIA have been sold, the delivery of cars and parts is operating at full swing again.

The corona motivated break is over for ŠKODA Motorsport. With the MOGUL Test-Rally in Sos-nová, motorsport in Czech Republic was re-started.

ŠKODA privateer Petr Semerád (CZE), who is the e-game ambassador for the Czech brand, proved his speed in the real

world behind the steering wheel of a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo and won the event together with co-driver Filip Šindelář (CZE). ŠKODA factory crew Jan Kopecký/Jan Hloušek (CZE/CZE) won the first stage, but lost chances for the victo-ry due to a puncture during the second special stage.

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Petr Semerád/ Filip Šindelář (CZE/CZE), winner of MOGUL Test-Rally in Sosnová, with their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo

Handover of the 353rd Rally FABIA, from left: David Jareš (Head of Commercial program at ŠKODA Motorsport), Věroslav Cvrček (Rexteam, technical support), European Junior Champion Filip Mareš, Pavel Paickr (Executive Director of Entry Engineering) and Norbert Hampl (Salesperson ŠKODA Motorsport)

• NEWS ALBERT VON THURN UND TAXIS VISITED ŠKODA MOTORSPORT

RALLY BOHEMIA, CZECH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Albert von Thurn und Taxis, regular competitor in the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) with the team of Baumschlager Rally & Racing (BRR),

used the Rally Bohemia as a test run for the upcoming ERC Rally di Roma Capitale. Before the rally, he visited the head-quarter of ŠKODA Motorsport. “It´s good to be back in the rally car. It´s been quite a pause and a lot of uncertainty about whether and when we can start again, so we are very excited to be back in the car and to particularly participate in Rally Bo-hemia. For the moment, we have basically pretty much a tar-mac season, because of the changes that have occurred. We will be doing two rallies in the Czech Championship, the sec-ond will be Valašská Rally. Our plan is to drive the tarmac rounds of the European Championship and maybe a rally in the Italian Championship or in Germany,” he said. Albert von Thurn und Taxis and co-driver Bernhard Ettel made the most out of the Rally Bohemia, finishing on 17th position. “It was really a challenging event, but I learnt and lot,” Albert confessed.

With the 47th Rally Bohemia, the Czech Rally Championship celebrated an impressive re-start af-ter the corona break. ŠKODA factory’s Jan Ko-

pecký (CZE) and co-driver Jan Hloušek (CZE) were the fast-est among the competitors with Rally2 cars and finished second overall after a tense fight with the winning Ford Fo-cus RS WRC crew Václav Pech jun./Petr Uhel (CZE/CZE). ŠKODA privateers Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (CZE/CZE) conquered fourth place with their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo after a faultless and fast performance.

Simon Wagner and Gerald Winter from Austria powered their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo to sixth place. Petr Semerád (CZE), who is the e-game ambassador for the Czech brand, and co-driver Jiří Hovorka (CZE) had bad luck when they put their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo off the road and had to retire while holding fifth position. Among the 22 cars strong field of Rally2 cars, 13 crews were competing with a FABIA rally car, five of them made it into the top ten of the overall classifica-tion.

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Albert von Thurn und Taxis with David Jareš (Head of Commercial program at ŠKODA Motorsport).

Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (CZE/CZE), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo at Rally Bohemia.

Jan Kopecký/Jan Hloušek (CZE/CZE), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo at Rally Bohemia.

• NEWS OTHER RECENT RALLY RESULTS:

RALLY DI ROMA CAPITALE: The re-start of the European Rally Championship, the Rally di Roma Capitale, promises to offer a fierce competition for victory. Among the 44 entries with

Rally2 cars, 17 crews are competing with a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 or ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo. Reigning FIA European Junior Champion (ERC1), Filip Mareš, will compete with his new co-driver Radovan Bucha and is leading the ŠKODA

squad on the entry list. Germany’s Dominik Dinkel will make his first appearance together with Ursula Mayrhofer in the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo from Brose Motorsport. Polish Champions Miko Marczyk/Szymon Gospodarczyk (Orlen team), Emil Lindholm/Mikael Korhonen and Albert von Thurn und Taxis/Bernhard Ettel (BRR Baumschlager Rally & Racing) are on the entry list as well.

Greece: The first round of the national champi-onship in Greece saw Ioannis Papadimitriou/

Nikolaos Petropoulos (GRC/GRC), winning with their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo the Rally Start Line.

Hungary: Grzegorz Grzyb and Michal Poradzisz from Poland (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo) were

the winners of the Bakonya Rally.

Lithunia: Vaidotas Žala and co-driver Andris Mālnieks (LTU/LVA) won the Rally Žemaitija with

their ŠKODA FABIA Rally2.

Portugal: The Rali de Castelo Branco, round of the Portuguese Rally Championship, was won by

Armindo Araújo/Luís Ramalho (POR/POR), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo.

Romania: Simone Tempestini and Sergio Itu (ROU/ROU) won with their ŠKODA FABIA

Rally2 evo the Raliul Perla Harghitai Tess, second round of the Romanian Rally Championship.

USA: Barry McKenna and Leon Jordan (IRL/IRL), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, are the winners of the

Southern Ohio Forest Rally.

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Emil Lindholm

Dominik Dinkel/Ursula Mayrhofer, ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo Miko Marczyk/Szymon Gospodarczyk (Team SRT)

FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) 2020

Event Date

Rally di Roma Capitale 24/07/–26/07/2020

Rally Liepāja 14/08/–16/08/2020

Azores Rallye 17/09/–19/09/2020

Cyprus Rally 16/10/–18/10/2020

Rally Hungary 06/11/–08/11/2020

Rally Islas Canarias 26/11/–28/11/2020

OUR ŠKODA RALLY FABIA – AN ONGOING SUCCESS STORY!

FACTS ABOUT THE ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 AND ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 EVO

ŠKODA customer crews at Rally Bohemia

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

Revised Calendar of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) 2020

Event Date

Monte-Carlo 23/01/–26/01/2020

Sweden 13/02/–16/02/2020

Mexico 12/03/–15/03/2020

Estonia 04/09/–06/09/2020

Turkey 24/09/–27/09/2020

Germany 15/10/–18/10/2020

Italy 29/10/–01/11/2020

Japan 19/11/–22/11/2020

• HISTORY

16 YEARS AGOAt the Rally Bohemia in 2004, Jan Kopecký won ŠKODA’s home event for the first time. Kopecký and co-driver Filip Schovánek shared a ŠKODA FABIA WRC. Up to now, the reigning Czech Rally Champion has won Rally Bohe-mia eight times.A

Jan Kopecký/Filip Schovánek, ŠKODA FABIA WRC, Rally Bohemia 2004