The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

CART: Mitel Semiconductor Joins MCI Worldcom Racing Team/Arciero-Wells

3 February 1999

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. - The Arciero-Wells Championship Auto Racing Team announced today that Mitel Semiconductor has joined the number 25 MCI WorldCom Champ Car Powered by Toyota as an associate sponsor for the 1999 FedEx Championship Series. CART rookie Cristiano da Matta, the 1998 Indy Lights champion, will drive the MCI WorldCom-sponsored entry.

"The VIP executive programs are key to our business strategies. It provides an excellent opportunity to network and share knowledge with our customers in a dynamic environment," says Glenn Stanley, Vice President Mitel Semiconductor. "CART sponsorship has increased Mitel Semiconductor's profile with our customers immeasurably and has given us a new and exciting focus for our marketing programs - one that exemplifies our core values of teamwork, performance and technology with which our customers can readily identify."

"Sharing information is important to developing exciting technological road-maps that set the pace for the future - Mitel Semiconductor will be part of that future," adds Mitel Semiconductor Marketing Director, Geoff Norbury. "We have no doubt that our association with PPI will meet with continued success and help place Mitel Semiconductor and our customers in the winners circle."

"The team has been striving to assemble a group of partners who fit our growing information technology platform, and Mitel Semiconductor is a perfect addition to that partnership," said Cal Wells III, team owner. "We are excited that Mitel Semiconductor has chosen our team to further their relationship with the FedEx Championship Series, one of the most technologically advanced racing series in the world, and feel that they will be able to grow new relationships with all of our partners, including MCI WorldCom, Pioneer Electronics and Toyota."

"We are pleased to welcome Mitel Semiconductor as an associate sponsor of the number 25 MCI WorldCom Champ Car," said Andy Deas, director of MCI WorldCom Sports Marketing. "The technological synergies between our companies and CART racing blend well and we look forward to further developing a marketing partnership with them."

"Technology drives our sport and that fits with Mitel Semiconductor," said da Matta. "Last year I had an opportunity to meet some of Mitel Semiconductor's Brazilian customers and management and I learned how strategic that market is for them. I am very proud to represent Mitel Semiconductor in Brazil and throughout the world with my team."

Mitel Semiconductor, a division of Mitel Corporation, is a designer, manufacturer and supplier of Standard and Application Specific Integrated Circuits, Optoelectronics and Analog Line Components. In more than 130 countries, customers benefit from Mitel Semiconductor's leadership in high performance solutions for the communications industry, and from their innovations in consumer, computer and high compliance industries such as aerospace, medical and instrumentation technologies. Mitel Semiconductor shares the knowledge it applies to its design and manufacturing activities with its customers through a special Custom Wafer Fabrication Service, a Global Design Support team and Customer Care Centre.

Mitel Corporation (TSE:MLT) is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of semiconductors, sub-systems and systems for the communications industries. The Company's products include integrated circuits for wired and wireless applications, applications-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), optoelectronic devices and custom silicon wafers; voice communications systems; networked voice and data systems; CTI systems and applications; telephony-enabled servers; public switching systems; and alternate network and remote access products. Mitel's leadership strategy is centered on developing strong microelectronics technology and advancing people-to-people communications in an open, distributed and standards-based environment.

Precision Preparation, Inc. (PPI) started by Cal Wells III in 1979, specializes in building winning off-road racing trucks. PPI has won 23 off-road championships and now features a work force of almost 130 employees at its facilities in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. Wells expanded his winning team and company into other racing venues, partnering with veteran CART team owner Frank Arciero Sr. in 1995 to form Arciero-Wells. In 1999, the team is campaigning driver Cristiano da Matta in the number 25 MCI WorldCom Reynard and Scott Pruett in the number 24 Pioneer Electronics/MCI WorldCom Reynard. Both cars are powered by Toyota with Firestone Tires.

PPI will continue its off-road racing team with Ivan "Ironman" Stewart at the wheel of an MCI WorldCom Toyota Trophy-Truck powered by a Tundra Racing V8 in the SCORE Off-Road Series. The team will also enter multiple drivers in the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship series; Anthony Lazzaro, racing the number 25 MCI WorldCom/PPI Swift and Andrew Bordin in the number 24 PPI Swift.