Pirelli will officially support four teams in the truck category of the Lisbon-Dakar Rally. Amongst them, the Loprais Tatra team will be one to watch ? having finished third in class last year ? along with the Iveco of Luisa Trucco and the Pattono brothers.

The Estonian ace tasted success once more at this year’s Memorial Bettega, the first on Pirelli control tyres after a two-year lay-off, driving a factory Subaru Impreza running on PZero tyres. He beat the Peugeot 307 WRC of Toni Gardemeister in the final. The young Italian Simone Campedelli was another star of Bologna, finishing fourth in the Memorial Bettega and winning the Coppa Dante Salvay, which was held at night.

Bologna, 16 December 2007 – Markko Martin has added his name to the roll call of Bettega Memorial Rallysprint winners, which took place today to conclude the Bologna Motor Show. Driving a factory Subaru Impreza WRC running on PZero tyres, the Estonian emerged victorious in the final after five heats. His opponent was the Finn Toni Gardemeister, driving a Peugeot 307 WRC also running on Pirelli tyres,similar to the one that Martin drove on the World Rally Championship two years ago.

After competing only infrequently over the last two years, Markko gladly accepted the challenge of the Bettega Memorial Rallysprint, pitting himself against drivers of the calibre of Francois Duval, Jan Kopecky and Toni Gardemeister – as well as some of the top Italian stars such as Alessandro Bettega, Simone Campedelli, Dindo Capello and Paolo Ciuffi, who were also using Pirelli tyres. Campedelli, driving a Peugeot 307 WRC, had the satisfaction of beating Francois Duval (Subaru Impreza WRC) in the final of the night-time Coppa Dante Salvay. Nonetheless, he was powerless to resist the quick Belgian in the third-place play-off for the Memorial Bettega competition itself.

Martin said that winning the Bettega Memorial Rallysprint was a big source of satisfaction, as it is a race that has attracted some of the World Championship’s top names as well as an extremely enthusiastic public. For Toni Gardemeister the Bettega Memorial Rallysprint had been an unlucky event for the past two years, as he had always lost in the final. Last year, the Finn was beaten in the final by Gigi Galli: co-incidentally driving exactly the same Pirelli-equipped Peugeot 307 WRC that Gardemeister used this year.

Mario Isola, Pirelli Competizioni‘s Rally Manager, praised Martin’s success at the end of the event. “Markko, who was a Peugeot factory driver in 2005 when the team was supplied by Pirelli, demonstrated this weekend the benefits of a single-tyre formula, which will be the case on next year’s World Rally Championship,” he said. “By putting all the drivers on an equal footing in terms of tyres, this enables close competition fought to the nearest tenth of a second.“

One of the key events at the Bologna Motor Show this year features Pirelli as the exclusive tyre supplier. Many other competitions will also run solely on PZero rubber, such as the WRC Italia Trophy. The entry list for the prestigious Memorial Bettega includes Alessandro Bettega (son of the fondly-remembered Attilio) and Dindo Capello, a multiple Le Mans winner.

 
 
Bologna, December 2007 – The Memorial Bettega is one of the most eagerly-awaited encounters at the Bologna Motor Show. Having dominated the last two events, Pirelli wanted to get behind this year’s competition to the maximum extent – so the Italian tyre firm will supply all the covers for this weekend’s Memorial Bettega Rallysprint. Pirelli is also supplying tyres for many other competitions that will be held in Area 48 of the Motor Show, such as the WRC Italia Trophy, the Super 1600 Challenge, the Super 2000 Trophy, and also “title sponsor” of the Historic Challenges.

Looking further ahead, Pirelli will start its first season as the World Rally Championship’s official tyre supplier in just over a month’s time at the Monte Carlo Rally. Pirelli will equip all the four-wheel drive cars (meaning the WRC and Group N PWRC entries) as well as the Junior World Championship competitors in Super 1600 cars. Pirelli‘s tyre supply deal is a three-year agreement, meaning that the Italian rubber will be a feature of the WRC until at least 2010.

With next year’s commitments looming large for Pirelli‘s technicians, led by the firm’s Rally Manager Mario Isola, the Memorial Bettega will constitute a perfect warm-up event and conclude this season’s celebrations of Pirelli‘s 100th anniversary in motorsport. The entries for the Memorial Bettega Rallysprint – all running on PZero tyres – include Subaru Impreza WRCs driven by Markko Martin and Francois Duval, Skoda Fabia WRCs driven by Dindo Capello (a multiple Le Mans winner) and Jan Kopecky, Alessandro Bettega’s Ford Focus WRC04, Simone Campedelli’s Peugeot 307 WRC and a Citroen Xsara WRC driven by Toni Gardemeister. The final competitor at the Memorial Bettega Rallysprint will be the winner of the WRC Italia Trophy. The potential candidates include some of the leading lights on the national scene, such as Tobia Cavallini and Paolo Ciuffi (Subaru Impreza), Michele Gregis and Alessandro Perico (Peugeot 206), Felice Re and Riccardo Errani (Skoda Fabia), Marco Silva (Peugeot 307) and Marco Fiorile (Ford Focus).
 
Paul Hembery, Pirelli‘s motorsport director, commented: “For Pirelli, the Memorial Bettega Rallysprint is not just one of many end of year celebrations. Instead, it’s an important opportunity to promote both our competition and road car tyres. The Memorial Bettega takes on a particular importance this year as it is our final significant engagement before we begin our three-year term as exclusive tyre supplier to the World Rally Championship, underlining Pirelli’s firm commitment to motorsport. From a sporting point of view, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Alessandro Bettega – competing for the first time in a race that bears his legendary father’s name – and to the talented Markko Martin, back behind the wheel of a WRC car where he belongs.“