ŠKODA NEWSLETTER • 4th issue 2021

NEXT STAGE OF SUCCESS by Michal Hrabánek, Head of ŠKODA Motorsport

nce again, we at ŠKODA wards the FIA European Rally Cham- CONTENT: Motorsport are working pionship (ERC) and the Czech Rally Editorial by Michal Hrabánek, 1 O on the future. With the Championship (MČR). We will see Head of ŠKODA Motorsport ŠKODA FABIA road car of ŠKODA Motor- Technical: switching to generation four, the rally sport supported team Toksport WRT Electromobility in motorsport, by version follows suit. Our multiple in action as well as the front-runners 2 ŠKODA Motorsport Team Manager Pavel Hortek championship winning car will enter of our national series, including the next stage of success. The devel- ­ŠKODA Motorsport test driver Jan Podium for ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel opment phase of the next generation Kopecký. With a high number of Review: rally version of the ŠKODA FABIA is ŠKODA crews at the start, we send 3 Renties Rally Belgium (WRC) already in full swing. With different our spare parts service to Zlín as reli- Rally Roma di Capitale (ERC) drivers, we have completed test ses- able support for our customer crews. Preview: 4 sions on tarmac and gravel in the A completely different approach to the Barum Czech Rally Zlín (ERC/MČR) Czech Republic, and Spain future of are battery-powered Interview: ­(video). Our test crew will be busy in cars. In this Newsletter, ŠKODA 5 János Puskádi, the next weeks as well. ­Motorsport Team Manager Pavel owner EUROSOL Racing Team Meanwhile, the current generation Hortek gives a summary of the current Facts about ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 6 ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo is still col- situation in motorsport in general. and ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo lecting trophies every weekend, as Whatever the future will bring, we 7 Other recent Rally Results you can see in the results overview in prepare ourselves in this sector as well. History: 8 this Newsletter. The next big event is For now, enjoy reading our latest ŠKODA at Rally Barum Czech Rally Zlín, counting to- Newsletter.

ŠKODA Motorsport has started testing the next generation Rally2 version of the ŠKODA FABIA • TECHNICAL

ELECTROMOBILITY IN MOTORSPORT by Pavel Hortek, ŠKODA Motorsport Team Manager

he revolution in modern the strongest group of vehicles, Rally1 transport systems is one of (formerly WRC), from 2022 onwards, T the most important ongoing hand in hand with the use of sustainable social changes today. Urbanization, fuel, which will be mandatory for all rally global environmental impacts and groups in the Word Rally Championship government regulations are accelerat- from next year on as well. ing demand for hybrid vehicles and In the meantime, starting last year, electric cars. Vehicle electrification is some electric cars have appeared on therefore the driving force behind the the tracks of national rally champion- ongoing revolution in the automotive ships, first the Corsa-e Rally and industry. The ability to quickly and this year also the ŠKODA RE-X1 Krei- profitably design electric cars, that are sel, which was developed by the Aus- of interest to customers, is a huge trian company Kreisel Electric in co- challenge. operation with ŠKODA Motorsport. While in the past some technical Pavel Hortek, ŠKODA Motorsport Team ­Although the further penetration of ­solutions in race cars were often Manager electric cars into rally championships a harbinger of series production, will not take place immediately, the ­t­oday – it seems – this is not the case 2014 and in other forms of circuit development cannot be stopped and any longer. based motorsport including , further changes to the rules can be While battery electric motorsport is this is not the case in rallying. There- expected from the FIA from 2025 at already customary in since fore, the FIA opted for hybridization of the latest.

BATTERY-POWERED PODIUM trong competition debut for grams, the fully electric rally car is only this weight difference. “If necessary, the fully electric ŠKODA 100 kg heavier than its internal com- the Austrian Motorsport Federation S RE-X1 Kreisel. With multiple bustion engine brother. “We are defi- can easily give the car more or less national champion Raimund Baum- nitely working to get the car lighter,” power,” Daniel Foissner explains, the schlager at the wheel, the ŠKODA Baumschlager promised. For the mo- project leader at Kreisel Electric. The FABIA Rally2 evo based prototype ment, a power advantage of roughly ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel’s drive train is finished Austrian Championship 56 kW compared to the standard ready for this – in rallycross spec, the round Rallye Weiz third overall. “We ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo equalizes car delivers close to 515 kW. didn’t have a single technical prob- lem,” Baumschlager said. He im- proved a couple of positions during leg two of the tarmac event, when rain made conditions really tricky. ­Victory went to Simon Wagner in a conventionally driven ŠKODA ­FABIA Rally2­ evo Edition 120. The 52.6 kWh battery gives the ­ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel a range of roughly 35 stage kilometers plus a bit more of liaison. Although the power pack weighs in at 330 kilo- Raimund Baumschlager gave the electric ŠKODA RE-X1 Kreisel its competition debut • REVIEW

Pieter Cracco/Jasper Vermeulen drive the Team BMA SKODA FABIA Rally evo through famous “Eau Rouge” on Spa-Francor- champ’s F1 track

WRC: LOCALS FLY THE ŠKODA FLAG ompetitors of the FIA World lied on the FABIA Rally2 model. With during the final leg relegated them to Rally Championship (WRC) the only international crew, Pepe fourth at the finish. Honours of top C categories WRC2 and WRC3 López/Borja Odriozola of Rally Team ŠKODA crew at the first ever Belgian can bring only a limited number of re- Spain, out after a crash during the pre- WRC round went to Pieter Cracco/ sults into their overall score. One event event test, the ŠKODA flag was flown Jasper Vermeulen. The Bernard Mun- skipped by all the WRC2 top-runners by local teams. ster Autosport (BMA) crew climbed was Renties Belgium. Thus, From the word “GO”, Sébastien Be- onto the podium as second in WRC3. Andreas Mikkelsen still leads the driv- doret and co-driver François Gilbert in Ghislain de Mevius/Johan Jalet (BMA) ers’ standings as well as ŠKODA Team SXM’s ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 in seventh and Cédric de Cecco/ ­Motorsport supported Toksport WRT evo fought with WRC3 overall leader Jérôme Humblet (Metior Sport) in the teams’ standings. Yohan Rossel for top spot. The Bel- eighth also made it into the top 10 of In WRC3, eight out of 17 entries for the gians were in front by 0.9 seconds af- WRC3, underlining the strong perfor- ŠKODA Belgium supported event re- ter day two. But a transmission issue mance of Belgian ŠKODA crews.

ERC: BASSO CONQUERS ROME

wo Italians battled it out during Rally Roma di On their first asphalt rally since nearly three months, Andreas Capitale, third round of the FIA European Rally Mikkelsen and co-driver Ola Fløene never really got to grips T Championship (ERC). As the second leg started, with their Toksport WRT run ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo. (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo) was trail- “I don’t think I had the aggressivity and the speed in the cor- ing Hyundai driver Andrea Crugnola by 5.4 seconds. Basso ners which you need to have on tarmac,” the Norwegian ad- increased the pressure by winning the day’s first test. One mitted. At least, eighth position was enough to close the gap stage later, he took the lead, when Crugnola caught a punc- to ERC overall leader Alexey Lukyanuk to one single point. ture. In the end, Basso and co-driver Lorenzo Granai cele- brated their second victory in Rome. Their winning margin: 35.8 seconds. Which was more than hundred times the difference be- tween ­positions three and four. Only during the very last stage, Hungary’s Norbert Herczig/Ramón Ferencz (ŠKODA Rally Team Hungaria) overtook Rally Team Spain’s Efrén Llarena/Sara Fernándes, who shared a Toksport WRT run ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo. The crews were separated by After 2019, Giandomenico Basso/Lorenzo Granai of ŠKODA 0.3 seconds only! customer team Delta Rally again won their home event • PREVIEW

At Barum Czech Rally Zlín, Andreas Mikkelsen of ŠKODA Motorsport supported team Toksport WRT is joined by new co-driver Jonas Andersson

ERC + MČR: CZECH DOUBLE-HEADER

wo sets of trophies are up for grabs at Barum (ACA ŠKODA Vančík Motorsport), a 21 years young ex-karter. Czech Rally Zlín (27 – 29 August 2021). For its 50th Of the 37 Rally2 entries, 24 crews rely on the rally car from T edition the tradition-rich event again not only Mladá Boleslav. counts to the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC), but With 20 victories to its name, ŠKODA is the most successful as well to the country’s national championship MČR. 211 brand at the Zlín based event. Already at the premiere in 1971 stage kilometres of mostly very bumpy, broken tarmac await a ŠKODA 1100 MB came first. Six wins of the ŠKODA the competitors in both series. One highlight is the nightly 130 RS in the hands of drivers like Václav Blahna, John Haug- Super through the streets of Zlín, a city with land and Jiří Šedivý followed in the 1970s and ’80s, before roughly 75,000 inhabitants to the Southeast of the Czech and the ŠKODA OCTAVIA WRC took over at Republic. the turn of the century. Jan Kopecký celebrated his first As all points are multiplied by the coefficient 1.5, Czech Rally Zlín ­victory at the wheel of a ŠKODA FABIA WRC in 2004. is one of the season highlights of the national championship. ­Between 2009 and 2013, the ŠKODA FABIA S2000 was Unbeaten since 2015 in Zlín, ŠKODA Motorsport test driver unbeatable. In 2015, Kopecký­ and the ŠKODA FABIA R5 Jan Kopecký fires up his ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo as current started their winning streak. MČR overall leader. He will not only face competition from local heroes like Filip Mareš of Laureta Auto ŠKODA Team. In the Czech Championship, six ŠKODA dealer teams run seven FABIA Rally2 evo. ŠKODA Motorsport is supporting them and all other customer teams with a dedicated spare parts service. A team of technicians will be present with a fully stocked truck. As in the past, Kopecký also has to fight the ERC regulars on his way to the podium. Among them are a handful of ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo driv- ers headed by Norwegian WRC2 overall leader Andreas Mik- kelsen (Toksport WRT), Efrén Llarena (Rally Team Spain), ŠKODA Motorsport test driver Jan Kopecký (Agrotec ŠKODA Miko Marczyk (Orlen Team) from Poland, Norbert Herczig Rally Team) is coming to the ’s fifth (ŠKODA Rally Team Hungaria) and Czech Dominik Stříteský round as overall leader • INTERVIEW

“MOST RELIABLE RALLY CAR ON THE MARKET” Hungarian EUROSOL Racing Team is making a business from renting ŠKODA FABIA rally cars. Owner János Puskádi speaks about his experiences

here are a couple How do high profile drivers push of traditional rally your team forward? T nations like Finland. We had a very good project last year What about Hungary? when we cooperated with ŠKODA Of course there is a lot of people who Motorsport and had the opportunity love football in Hungary, but rally is also to run Oliver Solberg in ERC as well as very popular. We have quite a lot of Andreas Mikkelsen and Emil Lindholm Rally2 cars in our championship. in WRC. We could learn a lot from ŠKODA’s engineers, technicians and What is the history of EUROSOL drivers. We can use this knowledge to Racing team? improve the service to our customers. A little bit more than ten years ago, János Puskádi, EUROSOL team owner when my other business ran quite well, Was this the biggest achievement I acquired a small car and I got deeper based on car renting. The ŠKODA in your team’s history? and deeper into rallying. Later, I bought ­FABIA is also very easy to learn. We Yes. It was a great honour for us, that a FABIA S2000, which was my first have drivers who switched from differ- ŠKODA Motorsport trusted us. I think all-wheel drive car from ŠKODA. At ent cars and they were immediately in we paid back, because we achieved this point, I realized that the car is just love with the ŠKODA FABIA. good results. But the 2021 season also too expensive to use it only three times looks good. For example, we already a year. So I started to rent it and this Is there any difference in your won three rounds of the Austrian part of my business started. We had approach to gentleman drivers championship with Simon Wagner. more customers year per year, all of and professionals? them were very happy with us and As a team, it’s good to have a mix. If EUROSOL bought a limited achieved good results. Today, we have there is a gentleman driver, who wants ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo three brand new cars. to drive your car, why not rent it to Edition 120. What is your him? But it’s also very important to plan with the car? What is your business strategy? have professional drivers. We are try- We have some gravel events ahead. We always maintain our cars as sug- ing to have a balance. We want to But to be honest, I don’t want to use gested by ŠKODA Motorsport. We achieve some good results, but on the this car on gravel. We will save it for have never longer service intervals or other hand keep the business running. tarmac events in Germany or Austria. higher mileage than recommended. It wasn’t the plan to have such a big team, but it is always better for the business.

Why did you choose the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo for your rental business? We always had a very good connec- tion with ŠKODA Motorsport. It fits us geographically. In addition, the ŠKODA FABIA is the most reliable rally car on the market. Of course, this is very im- Simon Wagner drives an EUROSOL ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 portant for a team, which business is evo Edition 120 in the Austrian championship FACTS ABOUT THE ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 AND ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 EVO**

* 1st to 3rd place ** as of 1/4/2015 to 22/8/2021

For some stages, Sébastien Bedoret/François Gilbert in Team SXM’s ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo lead WRC3 at Renties Ypres Rally Belgium OTHER RECENT RALLY RESULTS:

Argentina: Alejandro Cancio and co-driver Santia- go Garcia (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2) won Rally de Catamarca, fifth round of the Argentinean Championship.

Austria: Two wins in a row for a special car: Simon AWagner/GeraldUSTRIA Winter drove EUROSOL Racing Team’s ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo Edition 120 to victory at Austrian Championship rounds Rallye Weiz and Rallye Hartbergerland.

Belgium: By finishing second in WRC3 at Renties Fabio Andolfi/Stefano Savoia of ŠKODA customer team Motorsport Italia won the Italian Tarmac Championship classification at Rally Roma di Capitale, round three of Ypres Rally Belgium, Pieter Cracco/ the European Championship Jasper Vermeulen (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo of Team BMA) won the inside the top 10 of Székesfe- Rajd Nadwiślański, third round of the Belgium Rally Championship classifi- hérvár-Veszprém Rallye, part of the Polish Rally Championship. Mikołaj cation. Hungarian Championship. Overall Marczyk/ Szymon Gospodarczyk winners are Miklós Csomós/Attila of Orlen Team won, Marten Sport’s Bolivia: Roberto Saba and Nagy of ŠKODA customer team Wojciech Chuchała/Sebastian co-driver Claudio Ocampo Borsod Talent MSE. Rozwadowski finished third. (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2) won Rally Santa Cruz de la Sierra, third round Italy: With their victory Portugal: Against the of the Bolivian Championship. at ERC round Rally Roma backdrop of the Atlantic di Capitale (see page 3), Giandomeni- ocean, local heroes Alexandre Bulgaria: Team Megaport’s co Basso/Lorenzo Granai (ŠKODA Camacho/Pedro Calado drove the Miroslav Angelov/Georgi FABIA Rally2 evo) also extended their Delta Racing ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 Gadzhev (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo) overall lead in the main Italian evo to victory at Portuguese Champi- won Rally Tvarditsa, third round of Championship. The Tarmac Champi- onship round . the Bulgarian Championship. onship classification was won by ŠKODA customer team Motorsport Romania: After victory Estonia: Raul Jeets/Timo Italia’s Fabio Andolfi/Stefano Savoia. at Raliul Sibiului, Simone Taniel drove the ŠKODA Six ŠKODA crews made it into top Tempestini/Sergiu Itu (Napoca Rally

ESTFABIAONIA Rally2 evo of Team Tehase 10 of Rally Città di Arezzo – Valtiberi- Academy) are the new leaders of the Auto to victory at Rapla Ralli in na. Victory at the Italian Gravel Romanian Championship. 2nd place Estonia. Championship round went to Paolo went to Sebastian Barbu/Bogdan Andreucci/Rudy Briani of ŠKODA Iancu in another ŠKODA FABIA France: ŠKODA crew customer team M33. Rally2. Thierry Law-Long/Moham- mad Noor Balbolia won the Tour Mexico: Rally Sierras del Spain: Dominant victory Auto – Rallye National de la Réunion, Sul in Mexico saw ŠKODA by José Antonio Suárez/ round of the championship of the crew Benito Guerra/Jorge García Pin Alberto Iglesias at Rallye Ourense French overseas department. Salmones on top of the podium. (ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo). The Team Recalvi crew won the Spanish Hungary: A total of eight Poland: Two ŠKODA Superchampionship round with ŠKODA FABIA feature crews on the podium of a margin of 49 seconds. • HISTORY

During the 1981 , ŠKODA 130 RS crew Václav Blahna/Pavel Schovánek pass one of the mythic monasteries

ŠKODA AT THE ACROPOLIS RALLY

hen the Acropolis Rally joined the World Cham- engine with 1,300 cc. Norwegian driver John Haugland as pionship in 1973 as one of its founding members, well as Miloslav Zapadlo, surprised everybody by holding po- W the event already had made itself a name as the sitions inside the top 10 of in total 160 starters. Haugland “European ”. Started for the first time in 1951 at eventually fell back due to tyre problems, but Zapadlo fin- the foot of its name-giving monument in , the rally ished ninth overall and won the class. One year later, Václav featured extremely rough gravel stages like the legendary Blahna went one position higher, finishing eighth overall again “Tarzan” test and liaison sections so tight, that the competi- in 1981 at the wheel of the ŠKODA 130 RS. tors used to write down pace notes for road kilometres as A decade passed, and ŠKODA came back to the “Rally of the well. Which were a lot, because the rally was heavily support- Gods” with the FAVORIT 136L. Still with a 1,300 cc engine, ed by the country’s tourism sector and every year visited re- but now front-wheel driven, the car won its class in the hands mote places like Meteora with its famous monasteries and of factory driver Emil Triner in 1993 and 1994. In 1994, Triner picturesque spots like the Corinth Canal. The gruelling itinerary resulted in often not more than a doz- en cars reaching the finish. The roughness of the Greek grav- el roads made it a perfect choice for ŠKODA to showcase the robustness of the brand’s cars. In 1978, the Acropolis Rally was made of a total distance ex- ceeding 2,800 kilometres including 775 kilometres of stages. There were the big factory teams of , Ford, , Datsun, and Opel fighting for overall victory. In their wake, ŠKODA was facing opposition from Lada, Polski-Fiat and Wartburg in the battle for class victory. It was the era of At the wheel of a ŠKODA FELICIA Kit Car, Emil Triner finished the ŠKODA 130 RS, driven by a rear-mounted four-cylinder second in the class in 1997 (picture from 1995) • HISTORY

came a formidable ninth overall, teammate Pavel Sibera reached the finish at the Acropolis in tenth place overall. It was Sibera’s turn in 1997 to score another class win, this time at the wheel of the ŠKODA FELICIA Kit Car. From 1999, ŠKODA competed in the top class of World Ral- ly Cars (WRC). Using the ŠKODA OCTAVIA WRC with two-litre turbo-charged engine and four-wheel drive, ­German finished the gruelling Acropolis Rally fifth overall one year later and came seventh in 2001. rounded up the string of good results with ninth over- all in 2003, making the ŠKODA OCTAVIA WRC a rightful When group 2 was replaced by group A, ŠKODA sent the 130L descendant of the ŠKODA 130 RS on the car-breaking onto Greek gravel. Pictured: Jiří Urban/Bořívoj Motl, 1988 Greek gravel. As time went on, the OCTAVIA WRC was replaced by the called R5 cars – later renamed to Rally2 – formed the top FABIA WRC. Factory driver Jan Kopecký proved the strength class. With ŠKODA being one of the strongest brand’s in this of this model by finishing the Greek WRC round seventh category, private ŠKODA crews competed for overalls win at overall in 2007. In 2012, World-Champion-to-be Sébastien the shortened to 230 stage kilometres, but still very rough Ogier reached the same position – albeit with a ŠKODA event. Latvian drove a Sports Racing Technol- ­FABIA S2000. The Frenchman not only easily won the class. ogies ŠKODA FABIA R5 to victory in 2016. Two years later, At the wheel of the Czech car with two-litre normally aspirat- Portuguese Bruno Magalhães of ŠKODA customer team ed engine he also gave the title contenders in their tur- ARC won. bo-powered World Rally Cars a run for their money. This September, Acropolis Rally is back in the World Champi- Hardly to believe, but in 2014 the famous Acropolis Rally lost onship. Of course, ŠKODA will be present with private its place in the WRC calendar, but at least became part of the ­FABIA Rally2 crews fighting for honours in categories WRC2 FIA European Rally Championship (ERC). From then on, so- and WRC3.

In 2001, Belgians /Stéphane Prévot finished 10th overall in the ŠKODA OCTAVIA WRC

ŠKODA Further information: Zbyněk Straškraba, Communications Motorsport MOTORSPORT: P +420 605 293 168 [email protected] http://skoda-motorsport.com