Balcarce race excites Argentinian fans

[The public support for the second race of the Turismo Carretera was overwhelming. More than 30,000 fans attented this fantastic race. This support almost makes it possible to forget the difficiult times facing Argentina - FF]

One more time the T.C. showed that is a passion of the Argentinians.

The big attraction of this race in Balcarce was the come back of Juan María Traverso, six time champion of the Turismo Carretera, unquestioned idol, his last season in T.C. was in 1999 year of his last championship. Now he is back for his last year of activity, and he want to retire with a championship. But there is a lot to improve in his Chevrolet. He finished in 13th position.

On Saturday the fastest was Fernando Iglesias (Ford), this is his first pole in T.C. for the experienced driver.

He was followed by the sub-champion of `99, `00 and `01 Omar Martínez (Ford).

But on Sunday the things changed a little.

The first series started early in the morning, won by Iglesias after a hard fight with Ortelli, second and Ramos (Ford) in third.

The second series had the attraction of the presence of Traverso, who ended up in a difficult 11th place.

This series was won by Ernesto Bessone (Dodge) with Martínez (Ford) second and Cristian Ledesma (Chevrolet) third. The more relevant was the touch between Ledesma and Verna (Ford) that finished with aspirations of Verna for the final race.

The third series was the most amusing. There was a fantastic fight for the first place between Marcos Di Palma (Chevrolet) and Juan Manuel Silva (Ford). After four laps of fighting, a little but important touch between them made Di Plama retire from the series. This gave Silva a partial victory, but yet with the final race to run.

This was just a small aperitif of what the final would show.

At one o`clock we were ready to have a promising race.

Bessone (Dodge) started in first place because he made the fastest series. Second was Silva and then Iglesias, Martínez, Ortelli, Aventín, Martin, Ramos, Bugliotti, Hernandez, etc...

At the beginning Silva takes the first place. After a couple of laps Silva and Bessone escaped from the rest.

The fight for the first place was really intense like in all the races. In the third lap Henry Martin abandoned the race with problems in his Ford. A few laps later the problems are for Daniel Cingolani (Chevrolet) who quit without brakes. In fifth lap the Pace Car came out because of a car stopped in the middle of the track. The race started again, after the ex-champion Fabian Acuña (Ford) quit when he was behind in the positions.

The fight between Ortelli and Martínez, champion and sub-champion of last year finish with a touch between them with the worst part for Ortelli who lost with this some positions in the race.

J. L Di Palma (Chevrolet) who was trying to restart quit with an engine problem.

In the 16th lap Ramos, who was sixth, without brakes, hits to Diego Aventín and then Ramos's Ford stopped on track. Because of this the pace car came out for three laps.

After 24 laps and almost one hour of hard competition Silva won his second race in Turismo Carretera. The win marked to the day, his debut in August 1998.

The next race of the Turismo Carretera will be in April 7th. in La Plata.