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Bah?a Blanca race report

Fontana with intelligence. Norberto Fontana used all his experience and capacity to impose in the fourth race of the year for the T.C. 2000. The ex driver of F1 and C.A.R.T. is leaving a great moment in the category. He won two of the four races ...

Fontana with intelligence.

Norberto Fontana used all his experience and capacity to impose in the fourth race of the year for the T.C. 2000. The ex driver of F1 and C.A.R.T. is leaving a great moment in the category. He won two of the four races and is the new leader in the championship. Also Fontana announced last week that is trying to get a place in the DTM for the 2003 season.

On Saturday Guillermo Ortelli and his Honda Civic showed like the big candidate to win. He made the pole position with a time of 1m16s363. This was the pole number four for him in T.C. 2000. The last was in 1997 when he ran for the Chevrolet team.

Another good qualifying for Gabriel Furlán in the Mitsubishi Lancer. He finished just three thousandths behind Ortelli. Then came Silva (Honda Civic) in third position and the two Toyota Corollas of Fontana and Martínez.

The rain during Saturday night left a complicated track for the first series that was comfortably won by Ortelli, second finished his team mate Silva. Gustavo Der Ohanessian, who is back in T.C. 2000 now with a Ford of the Belloso Team finished third in his series but he was sanctioned with 10 seconds because of a 'jump start'.

The second series was disputed with a better track. In this series Furlán started in the first place followed by Fontana, Tuero, Fineschi, etc. In the start Furlán lost six positions. Fontana won with a good difference to the second, Fineschi (Honda) and Tuero (Honda) in third. Furlán finally finished in fifth place.

The track in Bahía Blanca is very abrasive so it was really important the strategy with the tyres.

After the two series Fontana and Ortelli seemed like the candidates to win in the final race.

Fontana started in first place because he made the fastest series, behind were Ortelli, Fineschi, Silva, Tuero, Martínez, etc.

In the first lap an accident between Cingolani (Honda), García (Ford), Bugliotti (Honda) and Martínez (Toyota) forced the entrance of the Pace Car.

After six laps and with the track clear, the race started again with Fontana and Ortelli separated from the rest.

Tuero, who was in fifth position start to lost performance in his Honda Civic number 29.

The fight for the third place between Silva and Fineschi was really intense. Unfortunately in lap sixteen Silva went to pits because of a problem in one of his tyres.Then Walter Hernández quit the race with problems in his Ford Focus. Tuero did the same a couple of laps later with engine problem.

After half race disputed Fontana was leading followed by Ortelli, Fineschi, Ponce de León, etc.

In lap 27, Ortelli because of the wear in his tyres went to pits and lost all possibility for the victory.

Fantastic job for Der Ohanessian. He started in last position and finished in third, after a hard fight with Fineschi who finished fourth. Also took a good result from Bahía Blanca the other two ProRacing team drivers, Yanantuoni and Zanirato who finished fifth and sixth.

In the last ten laps Furlán who was second tried to passed Fontana but the Toyota driver drove perfect and without mistakes.

Fontana knew take care the tyres and won his fourth race in the category.

Now he leads the championship with 40 points followed by Tuero and Furlán with 30 points.

The next race of the T.C. 2000 will be in June 9th. in Resistencia, Chaco.

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Cobertura especial de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA Corea-Japón 2002, sólo en Yahoo! Deportes

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