December 21, 2004

ŠKODA FABIA WRC TESTING CONCENTRATES ON 2005 MONTE CARLO AND SWEDISH RALLIES

Škoda Motorsport prepares for 2005 World Rally Championship

New drivers put Fabia WRC through its paces on asphalt and snow

Joan Sureda joins as Team Manager for the new season

The Škoda Motorsport World Rally Team has been hard at work testing for the coming 2005 season. Tests have been taking place in recent weeks in the south of France and northern Finland in preparation for the first two events of the new season; Monte Carlo and Sweden.

Armin Schwarz and Alex Bengue carried out the Monte Carlo testing as they will be the team’s two nominated drivers for World Championship points on that event. Alex concentrated on getting used to the Škoda Fabia WRC in preparation for what will be only his debut with the car and second attempt at the World’s most famous rally.

For last week’s snow testing the Škoda Motorsport World Rally Team headed for northern Finland where new team signing Janne Tuohino and Audi Sport’s DTM Champion Mattias Ekstrom drove the car on separate occasions. Both will join Armin for the Swedish rally in the first three-car entry of the season.

Armin Schwarz: “The weather was quite mixed which made it a good test for the Monte Carlo Rally. Of course with the new compact route we will again lose even more classic stages and that will reduce the risk of snow but the test went well and if the conditions are right we can get a good result.�?

Alex Bengue: “I did Monte in 2001 with a Peugeot 106 so this will be very different! The Fabia WRC felt nice to drive but my driving style is less aggressive than Armin’s so I will need to work a bit on a slightly different set up. I’m not going to make any predictions about the possible result until I’ve had more time in the car.�?

Janne Tuohino: “I was very happy with how quickly I adapted to the car. We drove maybe 320kms and it felt very good in the snow. I feel really confident about getting into it for Sweden . More testing would be nice but if that doesn’t happen then it won’t be a big problem because I think we can already get a good result.�?

Mattias Ekstrom: “I just concentrated on driving the car and getting the feel for how it behaved. I made a few contacts with the snow banks but overall I felt I was getting quicker with every run. This wasn’t the first time I’ve driven the Fabia WRC but it was my first proper test in the car so I wasn’t driving 100% - maybe just 99%! I am hoping to have another test before the rally and then I will be happier. I’ve got no idea about how well I will do in competition so for now I’m just hoping for a clean run and we will see what happens.�?

News from the team:

Another new face joining Škoda Motorsport for 2005 is Team Manager Joan Sureda. The 45-year old from Girona takes over from Antonio Rodriguez and, like Antonio, will be familiar to many people from his days as assistant Team Manager at SEAT Sport. Joan is no stranger to the current WRC having been a regular competitor, co-driving for Ferran Font and, in 2002, Paco Roig.

Armin Schwarz will have a new co-driver for 2005. Armin will be reunited with Klaus Wicha, the 44-year old German with whom Armin contested 20 WRC events between 1989-1996. The other driver/co-driver pairings will be Alex Bengue-Caroline Escudero, Jani Paasonen-Jani Vainikka, Janne Tuohino-Mikko Markkula, Mattias Ekstrom-Stefan Bergman and Jan Kopecký-Filip Schovánek.

2005 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (confirmed dates)

January 21-23 Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo (MC)

February 11-13 Uddeholm Swedish Rally (S)

March 11-13 Corona Rally Mexico (MEX)

April 8-10 Propecia Rally New Zealand (NZ)

April 29-May 1 Supermag Rally Italia – Sardinia (I)

May 13-15 Cyprus Rally (CY)

June 3-5 Rally of Turkey (TR)

June 24-26 Acropolis Rally of Greece (GR)

July 15-17 Rally Argentina (RA)

August 5-7 Neste Rally Finland (FIN)

August 26-28 OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland (D)